


Scarlet and the grub

by CyanideOreos, TheLadySyk0



Series: The New Alternia [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abuse, Babies, Blood, Class Issues, Cute, Emotional Abuse, Emotional Manipulation, Evil Corporations, Gen, Grub Fic, Grubs, Injury, Manipulation, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Motherhood, Political Intrigue, Secrets, Slight Sexual Harassment, cute grubs, humans raising grubs, little kids, mind powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-03-12 04:37:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 45,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13539837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyanideOreos/pseuds/CyanideOreos, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadySyk0/pseuds/TheLadySyk0
Summary: Set directly after the events of "Minnie and Crocodile dad" but before "Ten little fingers and ten little toes. An enterprising woman named "Scarlet Hasselti" CEO of the Lactrodectus corporation disapproves of the deepening relationship between Earth and Alternia, seeing where congressman Whiteman failed she decides to enact a more subtle approach.Scarlet Hasselti has decided to adopt a grub.Now won't this be interesting...Set directly after the events of "Minnie and Crocodile dad" and before "Ten little fingers and ten little toes" and "Starship Skaia" This fic will serve as a bridge of sorts connecting the main three parts of the series!





	1. Scarlet has an idea

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! I'm happy to finally release this! This is something we've had in mind fora while now! This fic will serve as a bridge between all three main parts of the series, connecting Minnie and Crocodile dad, Ten little fingers and ten little toes, and Starship Skaia! We have some surprises for you in store! Some secrets and some intrigue! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Fair warning, Scarlet is the worst.

A blonde woman leaned back in her leather computer chair, she wore a black skirt suit with a silk crimson low plunging blouse. Her hair was woven into a stylish updo, a silver spider pendant hung on her neck, rubies glimmering like drops of blood inset on the finely crafted piece. She glared at the screen in front of her, her bright red eyes flashing and her red painted mouth pinched. Scarlet Hasselti was not a woman to be trifled with, and the man on the other end of the skype call was trying the last of her patience. She rocked back and forth as she listened to the idiot blather through the video chat.

“I swear!” Congressman Whiteman’s face was flushed, his white grey brows furrowed in determination “We are so close! So close to getting that little girl away from that Alternian beast!”

Scarlet picked at her nails. Congressman Whiteman was an idiot, but at least he was a useful idiot. “Mister Whiteman.” She warned “The Latrodectus corporation has been funding the Alliance for Earth Purity for one reason, and one reason only.” She raised a brow at him through the screen “My...contributions to your foundation and to your campaign may be marked as charitable but...I expect results.”

The congressman nodded shakily “Believe me, we’re close. We just need some more funding! Recruitment and legal expenses!”

Scarlet rolled her eyes “Fine. This Alternian business has gone on long enough.” She stared at him through the screen “I’m transferring you the money, but I’m warning you.” Her eyes narrowed “You fail... and this is it Mike. I hope you understand that...”

And despite her grooming, her propping up his ridiculous foundation, the legal fees.

It all failed.

Spectacularly.

Scarlet sat back in her office chair, a bottle of impossibly expensive red wine on her desk and a baffled snarl on her face. She poured herself a glass, the stem of the wine glass held delicately in one hand, her red-painted nails clicking against the crystal.

“In other news today!” The large flat screen TV in front of her announced cheerfully “After a dramatic court battle, the Alternian lusus who made their home in Florida won the right to raise their adopted human daughter!” The picture on the screen was a large white Crocodile lusus cooing over a tiny human girl, wiping away the girl’s tears gently with one large claw.

“Ugh.” Scarlet sneered at the screen, her red lips pulled back “Gross.” She then tipped back her wine glass, drinking half of the glass in one pull, her nose wrinkling at the sharp tang of alcohol. She considered getting something stronger from the liquor cabinet. All that funding for this shit show. You just can’t buy a good politician these days...

“This is after a very dramatic attempted kidnapping!” The footage turned to a black SUV barreling down the Florida streets “Where ‘Crocodile dad’ proved themselves to be a true hero! Rescuing their daughter and three other children from the kidnapper!” There was more footage of a little ginger-haired boy being loaded into an ambulance, another human girl hugging her mother and a troll child running to a human man.

“The kidnapper has been identified and is cooperating. They have extensive ties with The Alliance of Earth Purity. The head of the Alliance for Earth Purity is Congressman Whiteman. Whiteman has been brought in for questioning and-”

Scarlet drained the rest of her glass,  growling in annoyance, gripping the wine glass so harshly that a crack could be heard in the crystal. A lock of blonde hair came loose from her updo. She reached for the bottle once more. “Sloppy, Whiteman. You paid her with your own goddamn accounts? What a fucking amateur...”

“Miss.” one of the video screens piped up, one of her top attorneys on video chat “How do we want to play this?” The man on the other end of the call shuffled through some papers on their desk “We have significant investments in Whiteman, surely they’ll find the monetary tie and-”

Scarlet waved away their concern “I knew Whiteman was going to get in trouble one day, I would only have hoped his inevitable downfall wouldn’t have made the Alternians look quite so good... We’ll make a statement, we’ll be shocked and appalled at his behavior and assure our stockholders we stand for family values, yadda yadda the usual.” 

Scarlet rolled her eyes and swayed her wine glass back and forth. “Family. Fucking. Values.” She growled, reaching again for the wine bottle.

From an adjacent screen another underling chimed in “We’re working on moving the members of the Alliance for Earth Purity to more...subtle organizations while this goes down. We’ve had better luck with some of the paid research groups and advertisements, according to a new poll 60% of Americans believe that trolls are inherently more violent than humans.”

“Good. Good.” Scarlet poured herself another glass “That was of course before this unfortunate round of News stories.” She sighed “We had been doing so well with the Violet blooded brute at the McDonalds incident, but then again we can’t always expect the Alternians to hand us bad publicity, so we need to be more proactive in creating it...” 

She took a contemplative sip “Speaking on creating bad publicity...Any news on the state of the grub relocation plan?”

The first underling tapped on their own computer “So far it’s limited, there’s only one ‘grub distribution expert’ on Earth right now, a Teal-blood named Jukilo Jurrok. They’re of course connected to the lusus in Florida. There’s a small trial group of human parents currently operating there.” The underling paused and sighed “Unfortunately after this news cycle, interest in the program has skyrocketed.”

Scarlet rolled her eyes, her nails clinking testily against the rim of the wine bottle “Of course it has.” she sighed and rested a cheek on a hand.

The other underling chimed in “Empress Feferi, or ‘The Supreme Benevolence’, and her forces are moving towards expanding the program, though there is a sizable coalition on Alternia that has been resisting, calling for less interactions with Earth and a return to ‘traditional’ Alternian ideals. I believe we still have time since Alternian politics moves slower than it does here, but pressure from the Alternian grub crisis might speed up their time table”

Scarlet hummed “Interesting. Do we know anything else about this Anti-Earth coalition?”

The underling nodded and a picture popped up on Scarlet’s screen “They are mostly being led by a Violet blood named Ozainu Kalala” The picture was slightly grainy, having been taken from a slight distance, the troll was extremely tall, with horns that curved slightly in the middle, small barbs protruded from the midsection of his horns, like a fishhook or a harpoon. The troll seemed to be in the middle of barking orders, his sharp teeth exposed slightly.

Scarlet smiled over the rim of her wine glass, her brow arched as she took a sip “He’s not bad looking…” She shrugged slightly and huffed out a laugh into her wine glass as she took another sip “...For a troll at least. What else do we know about him?”

The underling pulled up the Seadweller’s bio he had been able to gather “He’s over 2,000 years old, has been a prominent figure in politics since the age of the Condescension, has been known to advocate for extreme “brown and down” culling policies to curb the grub crisis rather than working with Earth. He created quite the name for himself in his formative years by taking the eyes of his enemies as trophies...” There was a couple of pictures of conspicuously one-eyed seadwellers and blue bloods alike.

Scarlet chuckled to herself. This troll... He was pretty, the same way a tiger is, inhuman, lethal, animalistic. “Oh how absolutely vile! I love it! Old bureaucracy? Genocide? Violence? Who better to exemplify the Alternian race?”  

“Well boys.” Scarlet  smiled at the picture in front of her “It seems as if we and Mister Kalala have some coinciding interests.”   
  


 

At a press conference the next day, Scarlet sniffled into a handkerchief. She blotted at her eyes behind the podium decorated with a large silver spider, their gleaming legs reaching to the far ends of the globe, the Latrodectus corporate logo. 

Scarlet shuddered out a sob. She deserves an emmy for this. “I assure you that the  Latrodectus corporate broadcasting group and their affiliates, LATRODEK simplex group, and Araneae distribution coalition, are deeply disappointed with the actions of Congressman Whiteman!” Scarlet put a hand to her chest, pretending to be deeply moved. She gave her audience a dramatic pause “We are deeply devoted to family values and the protection of children!”

The crowd clapped, lights from the cameras flashed and more questions were yelled from the crowd. An aide put their hand on Scarlet’s shoulder and she was ushered out with her head in her hands, pretending to weep.

As soon as they were away from the light of the cameras however, Scarlet shrugged off the aide’s hand. “Don’t touch me.” She groused. She straightened her back and smoothed down her dress, her lips pressed into an annoyed line.

She stepped into the elevator of Calamistrum tower, her personal monument to herself, a building that gleamed silver and triumphant in the Miami skyline, a combination of her personal home and corporate headquarters. The doors closed in front of her, emblazoned with the silver spider logo of her empire. She took a moment to use the reflection to fix her makeup, touching up her mascara and applying another layer of bright red lipstick.

Exiting into her personal suite of rooms, Scarlet smiled at the brightly polished marble floors, the gold veneer, the portrait of herself hanging over the fireplace, lounging across the frame. She threw off her coat and sat at her computer desk, booting up the machine. She looked to her clock and quickly calculated what the approximate time in Alternia was. She opened the webcam on her computer and placed a call.

Scarlet was immediately struck by how massive he seemed. Even though the screen on her computer was only 5 or six inches across the alien looked … big. It was something in the proportion of his shoulders maybe or it could have been the huge horns or the webbed gills, but the Alternian ambassador Ozainu Kalala looked enormous.

He sat in a large violet plush chair, the luxurious violet velvet punctuated by gold stitching and large golden upholstery tacks. The walls of the study seemed...oddly mechanical, sheets of metal held together with large bolts, like what one would expect on a submarine. A large bookcase was behind him, made from some expensive-looking alien wood that was tinged slightly with violet. The books looked to be expertly hand-bound, handsome leather edged in gold filigree. A large jar sat amongst the books, seemingly being used as a book-end. The jar had a golden stand and an ornate top, carved in delicate swirls and inlaid with obsidian and amethyst. The jar was filled with eyes of varying colors, ranging from Violet to a greenish blue. 

The troll leaned back in their chair, his violet eyes flicking over Scarlet coldly, like a well fed snake observing a surprised mouse. She heard a clicking sound and noticed that he clicked his claws against the handrest of his seat much the same way a woman with an expensive manicure would, like she often did in fact. She almost snickered to herself at that before she noticed the points on the nails and the way they curved into his fingertips. Those were definitely claws, honed and judging from the jar on his bookcase, lethal.

“Miss Scarlet Hesselti.” his voice was low, self assured and like all Alternian’s had a slight buzz to it.

Scarlet looked back at him impassively, leaning back and crossing her legs. “Commander Ozainu Kalala.”

Ozainu stared her down through the screen. “I will admit that I was surprised to receive your request for a meeting, but if my instincts are correct, and they usually are, I believe we have some mutually beneficial business to discuss .”

Scarlet’s lips quirked up “Yes well...it seems as if we have a common interest.”

“Oh?” Ozainu leaned back in his seat, his eyes gleaming yellow in the dimly lit study he seemed to be sitting in “And what would that be?”

Scarlet smiled, the smile not quite reaching her eyes. “I am of the opinion that the cultures of both Earth and Alternia, as beautiful and diverse as they are-”

Ozainu resisted rolling his eyes.

“-should be … protected. From people who would have them ... diluted.” Scarlet continued, watching Ozainu carefully for his reaction. “For cultures to remain intact they must be held … apart.”

Ozainu smiled slightly, folding his hands in front of him, he cocked his head to the side, a movement augmented by his horns. “...I believe…” His eyes narrowed “That we can come to a most satisfactory mutual arrangement Miss Hasselti...”

Scarlet smiled, charming and hollow. “Fantastic.” she leaned forward in her seat, now all business “I am sure you are well aware of the current push by the Empress for the grub distribution and adoption to be expanded on Earth.”

Ozainu nodded curtly.

Scarlet’s nails scratched against the leather of her office chair “However, this is all dependent upon the willingness of the human population to take in these … grubs.” 

Ozainu was used to the term grub being used in a derogatory manner but the way this human used it made him feel as if the word had hitherto unknown unpleasant meanings on earth.

Scarlet’s heel clicked impatiently against the marble floor “The general human populace is fickle, and willingness is going up now, due to a round of positive press, but given the right information…”

Ozainu hummed a little bored. “And you plan to manipulate public perception against the program, stifling it’s growth and perhaps even destroying the program entirely, with the added bonus of cutting down the number of businesses willing to trade with Alternia. Leaving your company one of the few left willing to trade with us giving you a monopoly on Alternian trade.”

He didn't end his statement with an “am I right?”. He knew he was.

Scarlet bristled, then with a force of will managed  to smile pleasantly. She continued on as if he hadn't just seen through her like she was a clear glass of water. “Yes well I happen to be in a prime position to sway public opinion. Should humans believe that the risks and the hardships of raising grubs outweigh the benefits then they simply will not adopt them.”  Scarlet leaned back in her chair  “You can’t run a voluntary program without volunteers.” Scarlet tapped a nail on her desk “They need a very visceral and very...public reason to dissuade them from adopting.”

Ozainu’s brows quirked up “ah...I see...you need a grub.”

Scarlet nodded “I own the largest broadcasting and media distribution company in the western hemisphere, a thriving lifestyle brand, it would be within character to adopt a grub from the-” Scarlet put a hand to her chest and batted her eyelashes “-The goodness of my heart…”

Ozainu stared at Scarlet, unamused at her display. 

She shrugged slightly 

Ozainu sighed “Very well, grubs are cheap and easy to obtain. If you would like to play up behavioral issues how about a psiionic? Moody, health issues, sure to start a couple of fires accidentally … Otherwise, taking a Jade blood from Alternia would be sure to upset a few traditionalists as they are not allowed to leave the planet. There is a higher chance of psychosis the higher you go up the spectrum and-”

“I want a violet blood.” Scarlet announced, nodding to herself. She seemed to preen slightly “Yes I believe a violet blood would be best.”

Ozainu stared at her incredulously for a moment before barking out a laugh “And what makes you think you’re worthy, nay even capable of being the lusus of a violet blood?”

Scarlet stared back at him, her brows furrowing. “Excuse me?”

Ozainu said nothing but smiled, his sharp teeth glinting in the light.

Scarlet bared her teeth, putting her hand angrily to her chest “ MY CORPORATIONS CONTROL 60% OF THE MEDIA CONSUMED ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE!”

“Oh my.” Ozainu stared blankly at her, sarcasm dripping from his voice “60% of the media on the western hemisphere of one measly planet…” He arched a brow “Are you listening to yourself?”

Scarlet growled, glaring daggers through the screen “I built this company from nothing! I control what the people think!”

Ozainu hummed “You know I’m not some green cadet who goes into a situation unaware of what their getting into. I did my research on you when you asked for a meeting.” He stared Scarlet down. “You started as a disposable clothes displayer. ”

Scarlet’s blood went cold and crossed her arms defensively “A model. I started as a model.”

Ozainu rolled his eyes “Yes, yes, and then you went to human film, using your mutation as a novelty to sell yourself.” He picked up a DVD from his desk, pinched between his claws as if it was a dirty rag. Scarlet was on the cover, wearing a ridiculous skin tight outfit, wielding a katana while looking smolderingly out from the cover. He tossed away the DVD and wiped his hand on a handkerchief maintaining eye contact the whole time.

Ozainu  looked down absolutely bored. “You’re worth…. maybe…. a cerulean at best.”

Scarlet’s mouth was open in outrage “A CERULEAN?”

Ozainu looked down at  his claws tapping impatiently against the desk. “That’s being…” His eyes flickered over her. He looked her right in the eyes “...Extremely generous…”

Scarlet glared through the screen, her red eyes flashing brighter for a moment. “And that is in comparison to YOU?”

Ozainu stared back at her, if she had been in the room with him at this moment, her neck would already have been broken. He tapped one claw against the handrest of his seat, cutting into the wood “Watch your tongue, human.”

Scarlet laughed, absolutely furious “See that is what's wrong with you  _ Alternians. _ ” She shook her head and sneered at Ozainu “Thinking that they are owed what they have based on what they are, simply given everything for having a certain color BLOOD of all things.”

Scarlet smiled maliciously at the troll. “Humans EARN their station! Class is awarded  to those who can TAKE IT.” Her nails scratched against the leather of her seat as she clenched her fist.

Ozainu growled at her, his eyes narrowed “Class is inherent, biological.” He sneered at her “You are proof that you can dress richly, pretend like a wriggler with their lusus, but no amount of money can buy you CLASS and more importantly, WORTH.” 

He leaned towards the computer, his sharp teeth flashing as he smiled “I look forward to the day that no troll, will ever have to be lessened by being exposed to you, or one of your kind.” Ozainu sneered “I’ll send you a grub and it will be exactly what you deserve.” And with that he turned off the webcam.

Scarlet stood up from her seat in a rage, flipping over her desk with a savage yell, her blonde hair wild in her face as she screamed.

An older man looked into the room, his suit buttoned neatly, a large grey mustache on his face. “Miss Hasselti…”

Scarlet turned to him with a huff, her shoulders still tense and her eyes flaring. “WHAT IS IT BORIS?”

The old man bowed slightly, watching her carefully. “...Miss are you alright?”

Scarlet stood up straighter, brushing off her dress and smoothing down her hair. She took a couple of deep breaths. “Yes...yes I am…”

She stepped over the rubble, her shoulders squared. “Clean this up.” She ordered the manservant. She paused “Oh and make preparations for a nursery.” She added with a forethought.

Boris looked at the broken desk and back to his mistress, worry evident in his eyes. “...A nursery miss?”

“Yes Boris…” Scarlet smiled. She pulled out a compact and fixed her lipstick, dabbing the red matte delicately “I’m adopting a grub.”    
  


 

Scarlet once again stood in front of a podium, the flashes of cameras lighting her smiling face. She clutched her hands together and smiled charmingly. “Since the very first day Alternia contacted Earth, they have come to us, pleading…” Scarlet fluttered her eyelashes and put a hand to her chest. “...entrusting us with a sacred duty!” She sighed and smiled dreamily “The care of needy children!”

A chorus of “dawws” went through the audience.

Scarlet smiled sunnily, benevolently. “Which is why I am announcing a partnership with the Alternian grub distribution efforts!” Scarlet motioned to Jukilo Jurrok, head of grub distribution on Earth.

The audience clapped and the teal-blooded troll seemed caught off-guard, obviously not expecting to be pointed out. He grimaced and waved halfheartedly. Sharon Kakkar sat next to him, the Indian woman glared daggers up at Scarlet, her arms crossed in front of her.

Scarlet laughed and clapped along for a moment before clearing her throat and drawing attention back to her. She grinned “And to prove my commitment...” Scarlet paused for dramatic effect “I will also be adopting a grub of my very own!”

The crowd erupted into startled cries, photographers snapped picture after picture, journalists shouted questions haphazardly over one another.

Sharon Kakkar bristled in her seat, her eyes narrowed at Scarlet. She leaned over to Jukilo. “...I don’t like this.” She whispered.

Jukilo sighed. “I know … I know but she passed the background check and the interview…” 

Jukilo watched as Scarlet laughed and smiled at the cameras, answering a few of the more loudly shouted questions from reporters. “...And we agreed that having her involved with the program would lead to more volunteers…”

Sharon tapped a finger against her bicep where her arms were crossed. “...but what is she playing at?…”

Scarlet laughed and waved off the shouted questions. “I plan to write a detailed guide on grub care for the human parent! You will be able to pick it up at any Lactrodectus, LACTRODEK or Areanae distributing group retailer! Along with my other books, ‘Scarlet’s guide to success’ and ‘From actress to corporate superpower, the Scarlet story’! We look forward to our partnership!”

Jukilo sighed, watching the interaction between Scarlet and the journalists with resignation. “Book sales?”

Sharon shook her head, glaring at Scarlet as the other woman put a hand to her chest and laughed charmingly  “... Maybe …” Sharon picked her purse up from the floor and slung it over a shoulder. “I might do some digging…”

Jukilo nodded. 

Sharon stood up. She looked at Scarlet and back to Jukilo. “Do you have the grub?”

Jukilo nodded, picking up a cat carrier from the floor under his chair. The grub inside hissed ominously. His brows furrowed. “For some reason, the Jade that came to look after the most recent shipment was adamant that Scarlet receive THIS grub.”

Sharon’s brows furrowed. “...Do we know why?”

Jukilo shook his head. “All I know is that they seemed scared…” His brows furrowed, he looked up at Sharon and tapped his cheek under his right eye “...And that they were missing an eye.”

Sharon frowned. “I’ll start there then. Keep me informed about how the meeting goes with her…”

Jukilo nodded “Will do.”

With that Sharon gave him one last nod, turning up the collar of her jacket and melting into the crowd.

Jukilo watched her go.

“Alright everyone!” Scarlet waved the journalists away “That’s enough questions for the day! I have a grub to meet! There's champagne and refreshments along with  complementary signed copies of my books in the lobby! Go on and enjoy!”

Security roughly pushed the journalists out of the room and towards said complementary sandwiches and signed books. 

With the journalists gone, Scarlet turned her attention to Jukilo. The troll stiffened under her gaze. She smiled and stepped towards him “Well Mister Jurrok?”

Jukilo bowed slightly towards her “...Miss Hasselti…”

Scarlet laughed and shook her head, her blonde curls bouncing “Oh please! Call me Scarlet!” she chirped, one shoulder quirked as she smiled up at him.

Jukilo nodded. “Alright...Scarlet.”

Scarlet smiled and motioned over a shoulder. “Come with me! I’m so excited to meet them!” She turned away and began to walk out of the room, her heels echoing loudly on the polished marble floors.

Jukilo picked up the cat carrier and followed her.

Scarlet led them to a silver elevator. She punched in a code at the chrome keypad and stepped inside, Jukilo following her.

They stood in the elevator together. As the elevator began to ascend, Jukilo noticed that the back end of the elevator was entirely glass, the city sprawled out around them, the evening painting the skyscrapers with rich pink and golds. He turned to Scarlet to remark on the lovely view, but found that she wasn’t looking at the scenery behind her, instead she leaned in towards the elevator doors, she was fixing her lipstick, watching her reflection in the silver logo of her company imprinted on the elevator doors.

The doors opened into a lavish apartment. Jukilo marveled at the silver trim, the polished marble floor and the expensive art on the walls. An extremely large oil painting portrait of Scarlet hung over a polished mantle-place.

“Come on, come on.” Scarlet tapped into the apartment. “This way, Boris will take your coat!”

Jukilo startled to find an old-looking human with a large mustache at his side. “Uh..” Jukilo stammered for a moment. “No that’s fine I’ll keep my coat on…”

Scarlet turned back and gave Jukilo a look. “Oh? Well if you insist.” She waved a hand vaguely at the manservant “You’re excused Boris.”

Boris bowed slightly and took his leave.

Scarlet sat down on a plush leather couch in front of the fireplace, smiling sweetly up at Jukilo, biting her bottom lip. She reached out one dainty looking leg and tapped the plush armchair opposite to her with the heel of her stiletto. “Well come on!” She laughed “Take a seat!”

Jukilo sat on the chair. He put the cat carrier with the grub inside on the coffee table between them. A small barrier between him and Scarlet.

“I was surprised to receive correspondence from you…” Jukilo started awkwardly “Surprised because of course it had been not expected or planned upon or-”

Click-click -tic

Click-click-tic

Scarlet’s smile seemed a bit distant now, the heel of her stiletto clicking against the marble floor.

“Yes uh-” Jukilo shook his head “...My matesprit is a fan of your movies, she asked that I get an autograph from you when we are done, if that is agreeable to you of course...”

Scarlet cocked her head, humming slightly. She was the picture of a pleasant host but something about her made a shiver go up his spine, something he couldn’t quite place or name. 

“Your...matesprit…” Scarlet laughed, putting a dainty hand to her mouth. Her eyes raked up Jukilo. “Has excellent taste!”

Jukilo shook his head. That could...that was probably not supposed to be interpreted the way it sounded.

...right? 

He coughed into a fist “Yes, uh. Would you like to meet your grub?”

Scarlet clapped her hands together eagerly, shimmying her shoulders a bit with excitement. “Yes! Yes of course! Show me my new child!”

Jukilo unzipped the cat carrier. Scarlet looked inside and-

Jukilo watched the change in the human’s demeanor. He watched her smile fall, he watched a cold look come over her eyes. Jukilo could only stare at the human because after being on Earth for so long, meeting humans like Laura and Thomas and Chloe-

He had never seen a look like that on a human, something so cold and calculating and...

predatory...

“What. is. this.” Scarlet asked coldly.

Jukilo tensed, something about the way her body language changed made him want to run. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry “...A cerulean miss…”

“...that bastard…” Scarlet whispered, so softly Jukilo could almost convince himself that he misheard her. Her hand on the coffee table balled into a fist.

“Excuse me?” Jukilo asked, his brows furrowed.

Scarlet looked up at him, her eyes wide, her shoulders tense and-

It was like a switch being flipped. Scarlet smiled sunnily and laughed, her shoulders shaking with mirth. “What a cutie!” She squealed and picked up the grub.

The grub peeped confused, wiggling their little nubby legs, their large shiny eyes wide.

Scarlet bounced the grub a bit in her hands “What a chubby baby!” She made kissy faces at the confused little thing, her voice going high the same way Jukilo observed Chloe and Laura when they were around human babies or grubs “What a chubby WITTLE baby!” Scarlet cooed.

Scarlet cradled the little thing in her arms, smiling down at the grub, benevolent as mother Mary herself, rocking the grub back and forth. 

Jukilo relaxed incrementally. This at least was the reaction he was used to...

Scarlet smoothed back some of the grub’s unruly black hair. “What messy hair, we’re going to have to get you all fixed up at the Salon won’t we?” She looked back at Jukilo and smiled “I think I’m going to name her Violet…”

Jukilo tensed again. “... Miss I don’t think that is quite a good idea …”

Scarlet pouted, looking up at Jukilo through her lashes “And why not?” She leaned towards him, her shoulder up coquettishly “... it is my favorite flower you know …”

Jukilo shook his head “The word Violet means something different to trolls, it is a caste not a name, it might cause friction between her and other trolls and-”

Scarlet laughed and waved away his concern. “Oh please! There are hardly any trolls on Earth anyways!”

Jukilo stifled another sigh. He watched the grub try and crawl out of Scarlet’s arms only for her to hold it firmly in place. “Yes well, trolls name themselves when they come of age and-”

Scarlet cocked her head, smiling wider. “Well humans name their young at birth.” She sighed dreamily. “It’s a bonding thing. Besides!” She smiled and giggled “Violet was my grandmother’s name! It means a lot to me that she’s welcomed into the family this way!”

“I-uh…” Jukilo grimaced, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck “Well…”

Scarlet leaned closer and put a hand on his shoulder, clicking her tongue in a disapproving way “You REALLY worry too much!” She leaned on closer still “There is a health center and spa housed in this building.” Her hand tightened where it was on Jukilo’s shoulder “They do GREAT massages! I could get us a couple of free vouchers and-”

Jukilo stood up suddenly from the couch, immensely uncomfortable. “Well.” He clapped his hands together “I uh… I will leave you with some instructional materials and if you need me you can always reach me on my cell and-”

“Oh my mister Jurrok.” Scarlet laughed “I will ALWAYS need you, I’m sure.”

Jukilo coughed, put a pile of pamphlets on the coffee table and backed away. He kept his eyes on Scarlet as he fumbled with the elevator buttons behind his back. The door opened and he backed inside.

Scarlet smiled, watching him as she lounged across the couch. She waved. “Bye! Don’t be a stranger!”

Jukilo grimaced and with that the elevator doors closed.

Scarlet chuckled, her eyes hooded as she watched him go. Alternian men had such a pretty sort of... animalness to them. He would be such a lovely thing to play with...

Boris stood off to the side, watching his mistress carefully.

Scarlet rolled her eyes, sitting up to glare at her servant. “What?”

Boris stared her down, his brows furrowed with disapproval. “...your grandmother’s names were Anne and Meredith.”

Scarlet huffed out a laugh. She stood up from the couch, holding the struggling grub under one arm like a belligerent purse. She leaned down and swiped the pile of pamphlets off the table. She stalked over to her servant and threw both grub and pamphlets into his arms haphazardly.

“Take these to the nursery.” Scarlet demanded. She turned on a heel sauntered towards her office. “And take notes, I have a book I have to start writing…”

Boris glared at the woman, watching her until the door to her office slammed closed. He looked at the little grub in his arms, brushing a pamphlet off of the grub’s sweet little face. The grub sneezed, rustling the pamphlets, she brought her two nubby little legs up to clean at her face.

Boris laughed, smiling fondly down at the little thing, his mustache curling up at the ends with the movement. He brushed back her hair with a white gloved hand. “How about we go to the kitchen and whip you up something to eat?”

The grub peeped excitedly and Boris chuckled, patting the grub’s back.

“I’ll even give you the spoon to lick!” Boris promised the grub cheerily, taking the little Alternian into the kitchen.   
  
  


Jukilo opened the door to the house he and Chloe shared, his shoulders slumped and a tired look in his eyes.

Chloe smiled at him from where she sat on the couch. Lately she had been into cross stitching and she currently had a hoop and thread in her hand. “So?” She chirped excitedly “How did it go? I can’t believe you ACTUALLY met her! Did you get an autograph?”

Jukilo groaned and staggered over to the couch. He leaned over Chloe and dropped gracelessly into her arms, burying his head in the crook of her neck. Chloe barely had time to throw away her sharp needle before she was suddenly squashed by an abundance of troll boyfriend.

“...I think you should stop watching her movies…” Jukilo mumbled into her neck.

Chloe wrapped her arms around him, her brows furrowing with concern as she petted his back. “...That bad huh?”

Jukilo grumbled indistinctly and pressed further into her.

The back sliding door to their house opened and Sharon stepped inside, shrugging off her coat.

“Oh!” Chloe struggled to wave at Sharon with how full her arms were with troll at the moment “Hi Sharon!”

Jukilo looked up at Sharon blearily.

Sharon gave him a look, her brow arched. “That bad huh?”

Jukilo nodded slightly. He sighed and watched Sharon come into the room, putting her jacket over one of the kitchen table chairs. “Did you find anything out with the Jade blood, the one who came with the most recent grub shipment?”

Sharon sighed, leaning a hip against the table. “They’re scared, I don’t know what of... but they’re scared…” She shook her head and ran a hand through her hair, she gave Jukilo a look “That jade blood...their eye.... Did you notice that?”

Jukilo absently fingered a faded scar next to his left eye. He had almost lost an eye when he was four sweeps old playing in the swamp when his childhood morail swung a wooden sword at him, but almost all civil servanterrorists knew about the violet blood who took the eyes of incompetent workers. Ozainu had been quite the trophy taker in his day and he remembered the Violet would often re-live that past in order to make a point.  

“That someone had torn it out? Yes.” 

Sharon looked up suddenly at him searching his face for … something. His face was carefully blank. His voice was light almost conversational, “It seems almost recent. I managed to get out of them that this grub was set aside specifically for Scarlet but I don’t know who or why…”

Chloe watched the exchange between the two of them. She sighed and squeezed her arms around Jukilo’s middle, leaning up to plant a kiss on his neck.

Jukilo looked down at her and gave her a watery smile.

“Hey…” Chloe brushed back some of his hair and cupped his cheek. “I don’t really know exactly what’s going on but …” She shrugged “Wanna go out into the backyard and burn the DVDs I have of Scarlet’s movies?”   
  


 

Jukilo, Chloe and Sharon all sat on the back porch, a fire blazing in the fire pit, the blazing fire painted their faces orange, sending deep shadows across the area. The DVD covers crinkled and hissed as they burned, Scarlet in skin tight outfits sending smoldering looks out at them before her image distorted and warped, crumbling away to ash.

Sharon watched the fire burn, her brows furrowed. “....I don’t like the idea of that grub being left alone with her…”

Jukilo also watched the fire, his mouth pressed into a harsh line, his hand absentmindedly petting Chloe where she sat in his lap. “...I don’t either…” he gave her a look. “...we need proof….”

“I know…” Sharon whispered, watching the fire intently “...I know…”   
  


 


	2. The Lion and the Lamb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scarlet writes the first draft of the guide to grub care. Jukilo and Sharon are suspicious of her but don't know what her game is next. Violet pupates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! just so you know there is a trigger warning here for emotional abuse so keep that in mind. I hope you like the new chapter though!

Boris sat in the rocking chair, the grub in his arms. The little grub looked up at him with big beady eyes. He held a ribbon above their head and giggled as the little grub lunged towards the ribbon, catching it in tiny sharp teeth and growling playfully.

“Such a little warrior!” Boris laughed as the grub chewed happily on the ribbon and wiggled on her back.

Boris paused when he heard voices from the next room. He gathered the little grub up in his arms, hushing her gently as he began to listen at the door.  


“I don’t understand.” Scarlet looked up at Jukilo and pouted “What about my book don’t you like?”

Jukilo’s mouth was pressed into a harsh line, he held a loosely bound manuscript in his hands. “The terminology in this book is very….clinical…”

Scarlet leaned forward in her office chair, looking up at Jukilo through her lashes. She folded her hands daintily, resting her chin on them to look up at him innocently “And?”

Jukilo huffed out a breath. “I was led to believe that the purpose of this book was to inform human parents about the joys of grub rearing, and to persuade them to choose adopting a grub! Persuade as in to convince them that such an endeavor is worthwhile, then to then guide them on how to raise a grub correctly.” His brow twitched. “Correctly as in the loose proper way of grub rearing that should result in emotionally stable and healthy young adult troll.”

Scarlet motioned with a hand vaguely, staring up at Jukilo with an amused expression on her face. “...and?”

Jukilo shook his head, holding the manuscript out in front of him as he scanned over a particularly offensive page “This goes into EXCRUCIATING detail about every possible mutation, every perceivable behavioral issue, cocoon forming, molting and-”

Scarlet laughed, leaning into his space and smiling at him like a third grader that just told her an absurdly simple concept they just learned. Patronizing and falsely pleasant “Jukilo, People have to be able to know what they are getting into... Are you asking that would be parents go into raising a grub blind to the responsibilities that will be required?” Her tone implied that it was Jukilo who was trying to take advantage of her or the book’s potential readers.

Jukilo bit his lip, embarrassed. He shook his head, trying to sort out where he had gone wrong. “No I’m not-  I-” He hissed slightly and collected his thoughts. He held up the manuscript. “The way this book is written, it’s like you DON’T want people to adopt grubs! Also, where did you even get some of these statistics?”

Jukilo’s brows furrowed and he went back to the manuscript “Troll children are more than 60% more likely to engage in territorial fights with other children, a BIOLOGICAL response, as trolls are more territorial by nature. Be sure to file your troll child’s claws before letting them play with NORMAL children to avoid serious injuries-” Jukilo shook his head as he read.

Jukilo gave her a look “Honestly? Where did these statistics even-"

Scarlet sighed, reaching up to pat Jukilo’s cheek condescendingly. He pulled away uncomfortable and Scarlet laughed  “Sweetpea.... They are from the Lactrodek research company, they are all professionals and-”

Jukilo set down the manuscript and gave Scarlet a scathing look. “You mean the research group you personally fund?”

Scarlet put a hand to her chest, her mouth pinched with indignation. “Jukilo, I’m surprised at you. It’s like you think I would pressure them for results! That’s very insulting you know…”

Jukilo couldn’t suppress the growl that came from his throat. Scarlet’s smile only widened. “You’ve based this off of what? All HUNDRED children that have been placed with human parents?  Which may I remind you is the limit YOU placed on expansion until this ‘official guide’ of yours would come out. That is hardly a sufficient sample size! You also didn’t mention that some of these behavioral issues can be attributed to the high rate of bullying we’ve noted, trolls are still an extreme minority and they are being treated as such! I know a few kids have gotten into fights, but the 60% statistic doesn’t account for the situations that they are in ,and in fact are much lower than what has been observed with HUMAN children in behavioral studies where-”

Scarlet raised a hand to stop him, rolling her eyes. “I just want my readers to be INFORMED Jukilo.” She cocked her head and pouted up at him, something dark behind her red eyes. “...Or don’t you want them to be informed?”

Jukilo sighed, running a clawed hand through his hair “I DO but-”

Scarlet shrugged, looking at Jukilo like he was being ridiculous and unreasonable “Then what’s the problem?”

Jukilo pointed a claw angrily at the manuscript. Talking with her was like herding cat lusii but somehow she always made him feel like an idiot at the end of it. “You KNOW what my problem is! I have an issue with your language AND your methodology!” He tugged at his tie, suppressing a growl “If you would just LISTEN I-”

Scarlet sighed. She stood up and rounded her desk to stand next to Jukilo. He stared down at her, his heartbeat thrumming incessantly under his skin. He was larger than her by far, but even being in the same room as her felt like tiptoeing around a cobra. She looked up at him from under her lashes. “Look at that…” Scarlet sighed, reaching to Jukilo’s tie “You got so angry you messed up your tie…”

Jukilo shook his head, stiffening despite himself. “My tie is FINE. I’m trying to tell you that-”

Scarlet tsked him, shaking her head. “Nonsense, we have to fix you up…” She reached up and took a hold of his tie, adjusting the knot and smoothing down the fabric slowly, her small hands leaving trails of heat across his front. She was too close to him. She was so small and human but something about her made him want to run, jump out the window, escape and never come back.

“Now I really don’t see what all the hubbub is about…” Scarlet murmured, sounding rather put out. She rolled her eyes, looking up at him with a long-suffering sigh “But if it will make you FEEL better, then I will change the language... a bit.”

Jukilo looked down at her, uncomfortable with how close she was. He knew that humans were more...touchy than trolls were. He didn’t know where the line was with humans yet and if Scarlet even knew she was crossing it.

“...thank you for … agreeing to change the language…” He muttered, wishing she would take her hands off of him. He looked down at her seriously. “I will hold you to that.”

Scarlet giggled and tugged on his tie playfully, leaning in closer with a smile “Oh I’m sure you will hold me to that...” Scarlet whispered, smoothing down his tie one last time, her fingers pausing near the bottom of it, almost venturing into the space between his tie and his belt.

Did she just?

Jukilo was just about to open his mouth to say something, ask her to stop or to step away or to remind her AGAIN that he had a matesprit, when Scarlet suddenly turned away. She sat back down behind her desk and picked up her reading glasses.

The interaction so brief and Scarlet’s subsequent reaction so blase, that Jukilo was already attempting to convince himself that he was reading into it too much, or that what happened was different for humans or-

“Now.” Scarlet picked up the manuscript and a highlighter “Is that all?” She looked up at him, her glasses at the end of her nose, and cocked her head “...or was there something ... else you wanted?” She gave him a meaningful look.

Jukilo took a step back from her desk, suddenly ashamed but unsure why. “...no...” He shook his head.

“Oh well, too bad...” Scarlet uncapped the highlighter with her teeth and turned her attention to the document in her hands. “We should do lunch sometime…. Mister Jurrok ....”

“Yes well…” Jukilo made his way back to the elevator, turning so that Scarlet did not see him put one of the copies of the manuscript under his suit jacket. “...trolls don’t do lunch … ancient tradition or something … I’m sure you understand...”  


 

Sharon sat at her kitchen table, she uncapped her highlighter with her teeth and attacked the book in front of her, writing down select passages on a notebook to her side. Laquda was cooking in the kitchen behind her, an apron dwarfed where it was stretched over her massive waist. She passed Sharon a cup of coffee and Sharon leaned up to kiss her briefly on the lips.

Jukilo was slumped over the other side of the table. If there was ever a day he wanted to renew his sugar addiction… “You don’t want to know what I had to… ENDURE... to get that manuscript... find anything?"

Sharon hissed at the numbers, her lip curling with disgust “She is sourcing almost entirely from her own research group.” Sharon sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose “She’s smart, there isn’t enough research on the topic yet to refute her properly...” Sharon took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes “Niche research fields mean that a few people create the entirety of the research. They could say anything about Alternians and have it be accepted as well known facts before anyone really looks at what they’ve done and starts to question it.”

“...I don’t like this…” Jukilo whispered “...Why would she-”

Sharon shook her head “That’s just it. I don’t know, but I’m going play it safe and sever us from her research group.” She leaned back in her chair “Laquda dear….” She called into the kitchen. Laquda looked over at her curiously. Sharon batted her eyes at her girlfriend “Can we have some startup money to start up a rival research group to stop an evil hag from spreading lies?”

Laquda cut a brownie from the pan she had just baked, an apron stretched around her muscled hips, scooping out the baked good with her bare hand. “Sounds dope babe. DOPE.” Laquda announced, her fangs covered with brownie, licking brown crumbs off her fingers “I have a sack of gold coins somewhere in the garage still. SOMEWHERE IN THE GARAGE.”

Sharon smiled, watching her fondly, her chin resting on a hand. “Thank you, honey.”  
  


Scarlet stalked back and forth in front of her desk, the glass wall of her office showing the entirety of the city below her. Her phone was to her ear. “They’re doing what now?”

She listened to the phone for a moment.

Scarlet growled, glaring outside as if Sharon and her new competing research company were on the sidewalk taunting her “Well bury them! There’s a reason I pay you assholes to keep a monopoly on troll behavioral statistics!”

She listened for a moment longer. She huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine! Fine! Just get it done!” Scarlet hung up the phone rudely and sighed. “...god I think I need a drink….”

Scarlet went to her liquor cabinet, her blonde hair beginning to fall into her face. She threw open the mahogany door only to find her favorite vintage of wine to be missing.

Oh for fuck’s sake.

“BORIS.” Scarlet yelled into the apartment. “WHERE IS MY CHATEAU LAFITE ROTHSCHILD?”

There was a moment until-

“NOT NOW MISS. I’M BUSY.” Boris yelled back, his voice echoing through the apartment.

Scarlet’s brows furrowed and she threw up a hand. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN BUSY?” Scarlet picked up the empty wine bottle and stalked farther into the apartment, following the deep sound of Boris’s voice “I SWEAR TO GOD BORIS I-”

Boris was in the bathroom, sitting on the solid marble tiles with a serious look on his face. A large silk cocoon was on the floor surrounded by towels. He had the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up to his elbows, but his bow tie was still on as he watched the bundle for any sign of movement.

Scarlet’s brow was raised and her mouth was open in astonishment, suddenly forgetting the alcohol she was supposed to be finding. “....What the hell is that?”

Boris shot an unamused look at her over his shoulder, his mustache following the shape of his frown “it’s a cocoon.”

Scarlet leaned over his shoulder to get a better look, tucking her loose hair behind an ear with a wide-eyed curious look. “....when did that happen?”

Boris sighed “Three days ago, miss.”

“Really?...huh…” Scarlet toed off her heels, leaving them by the door. She sat down on the bathroom floor cross legged on the other side of the cocoon. It was almost hilarious seeing her like this, usually so poised and in control, now sitting on the bathroom floor like a nervous kindergartener, hugging her knees slightly, the empty bottle of wine beside her.

Scarlet eyed the bundle curiously. She looked at Boris and then back to the cocoon, then back to Boris again. “...So what are we-”

“We’re watching for movement.” Boris informed her, not looking up from the bundle. He handed Scarlet one of the pamphlets Jukilo had given her the first day “It’s all in the pamphlet. You know they have a real lusus write these? They’ve raised over 25 grubs. They also have a blog with helpful grub rearing tricks and tips”

Scarlet looked at the picture on the back, a giant white crocodile waved happily, smiling benevolently at the camera. The brochure indeed listed a great deal of grub rearing advice as well as a vegan troll-safe brownie recipe that Scarlet reluctantly admitted to herself sounded pretty good…  


1 cup +2 spoons of table MILK

½ cup +3 spoons of table OIL OF THE VEGETABLE TYPE

1 spoon of table VANILLA

1 cup FLOUR

1 cup unsweetened COCOA DUST

¼ spoon of tea SALT

½ spoon of tea SODA OF BAKING

1 cup STEVIA BAKING BLEND (substitute half for real sugar if your trolls are 21+ hoo hoo!)

2 spoons of table CORNSTARCH

1 cup mini unsweetened chocolate chips

HELLO!

Put the very first THREE of these ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together! Preheat your food heat boxes to 330 degrees of the fahrenheit. Grease your pan with BUTTER or many of the other FOOD GREASENERS in which you have access too! RETRIEVE YOUR BOWL! The rest of these ingredients can be mixed in now! POUR INTO ENGREASENED PAN! Smooth down gently with a large spoon. Bake for 16 minutes. Should your brownies look a bit underdone DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED! I have formulated this recipe to be sugarless and without egg as we have found that egg may sometimes cause MILD STOMACH UPSETS in JADE and BLUE BLOODS! Pop your brownies in the refrigerator and they should firm up! FREEZE ANY EXTRAS TO RETAIN THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF BROWNIES FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE.

 

Scarlet scoffed, one brow arched. “It’s a lizard…. It’s a lizard and it’s making brownie recipes?”

“Yes well.” Boris took back the pamphlet, tucking it protectively into a pocket “It’s a lizard with a helpful and informative blog. I’ve emailed them a couple times, they seem nice.”

“Huh.” Scarlet answered back noncommittally, eyeing the picture of crocodile dad on the other side of the pamphlet. She hadn’t considered that lusii had enough mental power to bake brownies and use a computer...

The cocoon moved.

Boris straightened up, his hands ready over the bundle.

Scarlet sat up straight as well, looking to Boris who seemed to know what was going on. “What?” Scarlet demanded “What’s going on?”

“Wait for vocalization!” Boris announced, his grey brows furrowed like a general preparing for war. “Wait for vocalization and then we can help them from the cocoon!”

Scarlet’s eyes widened, looking from Boris to the cocoon with near panic “What seriously? NOW?”

There was a loud “MURRRR!!!” Sound from the cocoon.

“YES!” Boris began to unwrap the webbing “NOW! Help me unwrap!”

Scarlet paused but started to unwrap the bundle as well, the little cocoon shaking and stretching as a little hand pushed against the strands and-

“EWWWW!” Scarlet grimaced as blue fluid began to seep through the silk “IT’S GETTING ON MY DRESS!”

“TALLY HO!” Boris announced joyfully, his mustache bristling as he smiled with determination “THE GAL IS ALMOST FREE! KEEP GOING MISS!”

Scarlet ripped through the webbing, yelping as the membrane on the inside popping right in her lap and spilling blue goo all over her dress and the tile around her.

“OH MY GOD!” Scarlet groused, her voice high and whiny, grimacing at the copious amounts of blue fluid leaking out around her fingers “THIS IS GOING TO STAIN AND-”

A tiny grey fist reached out of the cocoon. Scarlet brushed away the majority of the webbing and-

She was heather grey, her little face surrounded by a halo of short wet black hair. She had the same horns she had as a grub, hooked and pronged. Black eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks as she coughed. Blue fluid bubbled up as she coughed, escaping between kitten sharp fangs. She opened her eyes and-

“Mom?” she whispered, her tiny voice hoarse.

Boris smiled, relieved tears welling up in his eyes. “Look at her! She’s alright! She’s alright!”

Scarlet was speechless, her eyes wide. She reached down and brushed the wet hair from Violet’s face. A smile slowly spread across her lips, not malicious or calculating for once but... in awe.

“Look at you…” Scarlet whispered. She could feel her blood rushing in her ears. It wasn’t a disgusting bug mutant, but a perfect little child... “...look at YOU…”

Scarlet gently reached into the shredded cocoon, now seemingly mindless of the gunk and lifted the child out. The little girl coughed and wiped at her face with a small uncoordinated hand and Scarlet reached her other arm out for a towel which Boris quickly handed her.

“Aren't you just the prettiest thing.” she said after she had wiped most of the slime off of her daughter's face, running a towel down a delicate pointed ear that flicked to track Scarlet’s voice. Her thumb smoothing over a smooth cheek. For once in Scarlet’s life she couldn't think of anything wrong with what she was holding.  
  


 

“Yes well.” Scarlet was on the phone once more. She stood in the nursery, Boris had converted the crib into a toddler’s bed in preparation for Violet’s pupation. Violet slept soundly in the bed, the little girl obviously exhausted from her ordeal.

“Ceruleans are the BEST.” Scarlet insisted over the phone.

“...Ma’m…” the researcher from Scarlet’s research group paused on the other end of the line. “... we’ve found they are actually more likely to have mental issues and-”

“Let me rephrase this in a way you, and the fucking paycheck you receive from me understand…” Scarlet growled “Ceruleans are the BEST. They are going to be superior to all other Alternians. They are the best at everything and I don’t fucking care what numbers you have to fuck with to make that happen…”

“Ma’m I-”

Scarlet hung up the phone.

She leaned in towards her daughter’s crib, watching the little girl sleep peacefully. She smiled, a fierce possessiveness igniting in her heart. “Look at you…” Scarlet whispered “My daughter… my legacy….”

Scarlet wound a lock of the child’s hair between her fingers, her smile growing even wider.

“Mine.”

  
  


Scarlet wore a large sun hat, sunglasses and an elegant dress. She smiled as she walked out of the elevator and into the apartment, a line of security personnel followed her out of the elevator like ants, each one of the burley men overloaded with shopping bags.

Boris paused where he had been vacuuming the living room. Violet was sitting on the coffee table, her little bare feet swinging back and forth, licking a large wooden spoon.

Boris watched as the security personnel set down what had to be more than fifty packages. “...What’s all this?...”

Violet waved one adorably pudgy hand at her mother. “Hi momma!” She chirped, her mouth full of macaroni and cheese.

Scarlet grimaced and tapped over to her daughter, yanking the spoon from her hands “What is this?” She looked at Boris accusingly “Carbs? Boris she can’t have carbs! She’ll get fat.”

Boris suppressed an eye roll. “Miss with all due respect, she’s three years old, we really shouldn't be worried about that.”

Scarlet pointed at Boris accusingly with the spoon, her mouth pinched as she wielded the wooden implement. “I will have you know that childhood obesity is a serious issue Boris.” Scarlet turned away from him with one last glare

Scarlet went to one of the shopping bags and began to root around in it “...besides, since she’s my daughter people will want to take pictures of her, she has to keep her figure.”

“Again.” Boris sighed, his mustache following the shape of his frown “Three years old.”

Scarlet waved off his concern, pulling out a beautiful miniature blue dress from the bag. Layers of sky blue tulle made an adorable skirt, sparkly embroidered butterflies placed artistically about the bell of the gown. Scarlet grinned and showed her daughter the dress. “Isn’t it just DARLING? I took your measurements and had it custom made!”

Scarlet handed the fluffy and sparkling thing to her wide-eyed daughter. Violet took the dress and held it against her with awe.

Scarlet went back to the bags. “I also went to the usual places, gucci, prada, you would be surprised how many of these places have fantastic child lines and-”

Violet patted the dress as her mother continued to talk about the clothes she had bought. She was trying to be gentle but-

One of her talons got snagged in the tulle.

Violet’s eyes went wide and panicked, she shook her hand but the tulle wouldn’t come unstuck.

Boris shook his head, moving to try and help Violet. “Wait Violet don’t pull-”

The tulle ripped. The shred of delicate fabric echoing loudly through the spacious penthouse.

Scarlet paused, her once relaxed shoulders stiffening.

“ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Scarlet threw down the shopping bag she had been holding, something inside shattering as it hit the ground. She whirled around to glare at her daughter. Violet shrunk under her gaze.

Scarlet growled, a snarl on her face, her hands balled into fists and her shoulders a tense line. “YOU HAD IT FOR TEN SECONDS AND YOU ALREADY-” She shrieked.

Blue tears began to well up in Violet’s eyes.

Scarlet stopped.

Boris and Violet watched her anxiously, stiff and silent as they observed her as if Scarlet was a hornet’s nest or a snake.

Scarlet ran a hand through her hair. “It’s fine.” Her voice was tense. She sighed out a long breath. “It’s fine.” She repeated to herself, her voice still shaking slightly from rage.

Scarlet crossed over to her daughter, leaning down to her level. Violet’s eyes were filled with tears as she looked up at her mother. “...it’s ok…” Scarlet soothed, tugging her claws from the delicate fabric. “...We can have it fixed…”

Scarlet kissed her daughter’s knuckles, pulling back to look at the sharp talons. She hummed disapprovingly. “We’ll get them filed… Can’t have you ruining everything you touch now can we?” She looked to her daughter, cocking her head with a small smile. “Want to go with mommy to the nail salon?”

Violet sniffed, scrubbing one cheek with a hand, nodding slightly.

Scarlet took a pair of gucci white ballet flats from one of the packages. She kneeled before Violet and helped her into them. She smoothed down the little girl’s hair and took her hand.

Scarlet turned to Boris. “We’re going to go to the nail salon a couple of floors down” She began to walk to the elevator, Violet tottering after her.

Before the elevator closed, Scarlet gave Boris a look and motioned vaguely to the packages scattered around the apartment. “Oh and Boris, be a dear and put those away.”

Boris looked back to the mountain of packages and sighed.

Scarlet and Violet rode down the elevator. Violet turned to the glass back of the elevator, her eyes widening as she looked out at the city, light reflecting out across the skyscrapers. Violet giggled and pressed her face against the glass, peering down at the bustling city. “Pretty!”

Scarlet turned back to the glass wall of the elevator. She glanced down and smiled at the way that Violet pressed her little hands against the glass, her grey eyes awash with the golden light from the city.

Scarlet watched the city with her daughter, a sort of calm washing over her that she hadn’t felt since… well… ever…

“You’re right.” Scarlet whispered, golden light warming her face as she stood next to her daughter. “It is pretty…”

The elevator doors opened. Scarlet sighed and shook her head, dispelling whatever spell that had come over her. She took Violet’s hand and led her into the hallway. “Come on dear.”

The white marble of the hallway was accented with streaks of gold inlaid into the stone. The gold inlaid was so expertly placed, it looked as if a vein of gold had grown naturally into the swirls and streaks of the marble. The air was growing wet and heady, thick with the scent of sandalwood and jasmine. The hallway led to a bridge over a false indoor river, koi swimming lazily over polished marble stones, streaks of orange yellow and black against the pure white rocks.

Violet paused to gape at the koi, reaching one tiny clawed hand into the water, the fish swimming curiously up to her hand. Violet giggled, petting a koi as large as herself like a puppy. Scarlet urged her forward with a tug, violet looking back at the fish wistfully.

Elegant japanese style murals hung on the wall, women lounging near koi ponds, holding lillies or combing their hair, their delicate feet peeking out from the edges of their kimonos. Cultural appropriation at its finest.

Scarlet came to the health center. A waterfall flowed over one wall of the waiting room, all of the furniture was elegantly crafted bamboo, the scent of Jasmine and sandalwood was almost overwhelming now.

A trio of woman dressed in high-necked uniforms bowed slightly as Scarlet approached. Each woman looked remarkably similar, as if they were chosen specifically based on a type, pretty and thin, their hair tied into neat buns on the tops of their heads. One woman had blonde hair, the next had red and the last had brown hair. Standing in order they looked like copies of the same woman printed out as the printer slowly ran out of dark ink, or perhaps conversely stages of the same woman slowly browning in an oven.

“Private room.” Scarlet demanded without looking at any of them. “We’ll be getting manicures, pedicures and facials.”

“Yes miss.” All three women spoke in unison and bowed slightly. They broke rank, the blonde woman leading them to a private room at the end of the hall while the brown and red haired women flanked Scarlet and Violet on either side.

The blonde woman opened a japanese-style painted screen and waited at the door as Scarlet and Violet entered. The room was decorated similarly to the rest of the floor, there was a running fountain down one wall, a couple of koi milling about at the bottom, the pool connected to the main one by a channel under the wall. A marble statue of a woman sat on the edge of the koi fish pond, her kimono draping elegantly around her, dipping delicate feet into the water, her face coquettishly hidden behind a delicately carved fan inlaid with gold.

Scarlet sat down on one of the salon chairs, she smiled at Violet and patted the seat of the salon chair next to her. Violet smiled and scrambled up into the chair, dwarfed by the adult-sized chair.

The brunette woman couldn’t help but giggle at Violet, the way the little girl grinned and kicked her feet as she sat in the chair that was much too large for her.

The blonde woman and the red-headed woman shot her a warning look.

The brunette woman looked back at them, all three women sharing a meaningful glance. The brunette woman pressed her lips together, ashamed.

The red-headed woman went to Scarlet’s side. She sat next to Scarlet, picked up some tools from a side table and immediately began to work on Scarlet’s nails. The blonde woman sat at Scarlet’s feet, filling a low tub with water in preparation for her pedicure.

The brunette woman turned to Violet.

Violet looked up to the brunette woman, she smiled and kicked her little feet. “Hi!”

The brunette woman smiled, putting a delicate hand to her mouth. “Hi.” She whispered back, waving slightly with one hand, she looked nervously to Scarlet and the two other women as if to see if they heard her. When they continued working she let out a silent breath, her shoulders relaxing

She sat at Violet’s side, adjusting the handrests so that Violet could sit in the seat more comfortably.  She leaned in and whispered to Violet “I’m going to start working on your nails now, ok?”

Violet nodded, wide-eyed, chewing on a lock of her own long black hair “ok.”

The woman took Violet’s little hand, she took out a file and began to-

The file snapped.

Loudly.

The blonde woman and the red-headed woman’s heads both snapped up to look at the brunette woman, their eyes wide with panic. They were like a small herd of gazelle tiptoeing around the lioness and this one just kept falling behind.

Scarlet cracked open an eye to glare at her as well, the stare of a well fed beast.

“I uh…” The brunette looked at the blonde and red-headed woman’s near panicked expressions, swallowing nervously. “I may have to use something more substantial… just a moment...” She dug in her kit for a moment and pulled out a small electric sander, going back to Violet’s nails.

Scarlet closed her eye, leaning back in her chair slightly. The blonde woman and the red-headed woman relaxed as well, sharing a look between them before going back to working on Scarlet.

The brunette woman continued to work on Violet’s nails, sanding down the tips of her talons with remarkable gentleness.

Violet bit her lip and leaned in. “...my name is Violet.” She informed the woman.

The woman smiled back at her and leaned in as well. From this close up Violet could see the freckles that dotted across the bridge of her nose “My name is Lila.” She whispered back.

Violet smiled sweetly. “Hi Lila!”

Lila smiled back “Hi Violet.”

Lila smoothed down Violet’s claws, rounding them down and evening them out. She buffed them until the yellowish keratin shone. “Now…” Lila motioned to a display of polishes off to the side, thousands of gleaming bottles to choose from “go and pick a color you’d like.”

Violet grinned and wiggled off the seat, tottering over to the display and grinning up at the bottles. She pointed excitedly at a darkish blue color. “That one!”

Lila smiled and pointed to the bottle “That one?”

Violet nodded earnestly. Lila retrieved the bottle for her.

“MOM!” Violet yelled excitedly to Scarlet nearby.

“No yelling.” Scarlet rebuked “Use your indoor voice.”

“Sorry!” Violet whispered, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Mom.” She whispered insistently.

“What?” Scarlet whispered back, her eyebrows quirking up, amused despite herself.

Violet grinned “Can I choose the colors for your nails too?”

Scarlet smiled and shrugged “Very well!”

Violet smiled and trotted over to the nail polishes at the display. Eventually she chose a dark blue for herself, turning the bottle over and watching the sparkles move in the liquid with a smile. Violet’s little brows furrowed over her two choices for her mother, one bright red, the other a shiny metallic chrome.

“Mom?” Violet turned back to Scarlet. Scarlet looked up from her nails. Violet held up the little bottles, her mouth pulled down in an adorable pout “I can’t decide!”

Scarlet put a finger to her lips in thought. She turned to one of the nail technicians. “What do you think of red with a chrome edge?”

The blonde woman paused, bowing her head slightly, not looking Scarlet directly in the eye “Sounds very modern miss.”

“Yes.” The redheaded woman agreed “Very modern Miss…”

Scarlet turned back to Violet. “Both then.”  


 

Violet was proud of her nails, smiling at the dark blue color. She kept turning to Scarlet to show them to her proudly. Scarlet would gasp in over dramatic awe and Violet would giggle and kick her little feet.

Scarlet had her nails filed to a sharp point, grinning at the now bright red with a knife like chrome edge. Violet looked to her now blunted nails, her brows furrowed.

Violet giggled when she got her pedicure, apparently very ticklish. Lila laughed at the little girl’s reactions, wiggling and laughing in her seat.

The facials were next, green paste spread evenly across their faces. Violet sniffed at it, giggling as it was applied. “It feels smooshy!” she announced.

Scarlet snorted.

Violet’s tongue peeked out, reaching out to taste it.

Scarlet scoffed and smacked Violet’s arm gently “Violet! Don’t do that! That’s disgusting!” She tried to frown but couldn’t help but smile at the way Violet attempted futilely to lick her own nose.  


 

Afterwards, primped and polished, Scarlet and Violet walked out of the salon. Violet ran down the marble hallway ahead of her mother, laughing and holding her hands out in front of her to admire her nails.

The trio of women stood behind Scarlet, their hands folded demurely in front of them.

Scarlet smiled, looking at where Violet was giggling and playing ahead in the hallway. She hummed “Thank you for a lovely evening, we’ll be off now.”

The women bowed slightly “Have a good day” they said in unison.

Scarlet laughed as Violet slipped on the marble, falling on her little tush, a startled look on her face before scrambling up to keep playing.

“Oh and one last thing…” Scarlet back over her shoulder at the women.

The blonde woman stepped forward. “Yes miss?”

Scarlet pointed one beautifully painted nail at Lila. Lila’s eyes widened. “Fire her.”

Lila squeaked, her shoulders stiffening. “What? I-”

“She’s too loud.” Scarlet explained, turning away dismissively. She began to walk out of the spa and down the hallway.

“No Miss!” Lila’s brown eyes were beginning to fill with tears “I’m paying my way through college I can’t-” She reached out to stop Scarlet, her brown eyes filling with tears and-

The blonde woman and the red headed woman closed the door of the spa, separating Lila from Scarlet. They flanked Lila on either side, wearing matching pitying looks.

“I’m sorry Lila…” the red headed woman whispered.  


 

Scarlet hummed and she walked down the hallway, her heels clacking against the marble floor, a self satisfied look on her face.

Violet wasn’t laughing anymore, wasn’t playing or admiring her nails. She stared back at the now closed doors of the spa, her ears flicked back and her brows furrowed.

Scarlet stood beside her daughter. She leaned down and ran her newly painted nails through Violet’s hair. She noticed the look on Violet’s face and frowned “What’s wrong honey?”

Violet turned to look up at her mother, her little brows furrowed and her mouth pinched. “...she didn’t do anything wrong…”

Scarlet laughed, twisting a lock of Violet’s hair around a finger. “I know.”

Violet shook her head, her fangs digging into her bottom teeth. “Mister Boris says it’s better to be nice to people.”

Scarlet sighed. She huffed out a laugh. “Mister Boris is a SHEEP.”

Scarlet leaned down to her daughter’s level. “You see Violet…” She whispered, tucking a lock of hair behind one of Violet’s pointed ears “The world is divided into two types of people, the weak and the strong…” Scarlet laughed and cocked her head “Strong, powerful and determined people, and the people who AREN’T….The lions and the lambs.”

She put a finger to Violet’s chest and then to her own “See you and me are lions, other people may not like it, but that’s how it is.” Scarlet stood up and brushed off her skirt. She looked down at Violet, an appraising look on her face “And we wouldn’t keep a sheep that wasn’t useful...now would we?”

Violet paused, her little brows furrowed and her fangs digging into her bottom lip. She fiddled with her blunted down claws, her mother’s own chrome tipped nails as sharp as daggers where her hand rested on her shoulder.

“....no…” Violet whispered “...I guess not…”

Scarlet hummed. She ruffled Violet’s hair. “Oh Violet…”

Scarlet smiled and a shiver ran down Violet’s back.

“I have so much to teach you…”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought! I love writing Scarlet because I hate her SO DAMN MUCH. Please leave a comment! Protip on makin ur fanfic authors write more -Comments keep the gal motivated and the gears turning!


	3. The council of dads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scarlet loves her daughter, and because she loves her Violet must be the best. She must be the best no matter what the consequences are, and there WILL be consequences.
> 
> Jukilo and Sharon have put together their research company, years of red tape and work have led to this moment, now the council of dads are coming together to fight against Scarlet!
> 
> Violet writhes on the bed, she screams as pain pounds through her head, coalescing behind her left eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys! Thank you for being so patient for chapters! I have a lot of irons in the fire but I've managed to keep to my schedule of updating a fic every 15 days! Too bad I have so many fics!
> 
> Anywho I hope you enjoy this chapter! A lot of stuff happens here!!! LIKE A LOT!!! We have some tie-ins to other parts of the series, if you can spot them then a metaphorical cookie to you! We're getting close to the end and I hope I surprise you when we get there!
> 
> fair warning: Scarlet continues to be terrible.

Scarlet Hasselti was in her office, looking through the glass wall at the city below her, the first rays of morning sun beginning to shine against the glass of the skyscrapers around her building, like a mosaic of broken pieces of light, like the camera flashes at the end of the runway. Beautiful, glimmering and disjointed.

Scarlet looked down at the city, an oyster to be cracked for its pearl. She would be the one who would conquer this planet. Not by an outright assault but slowly, guiding from the shadows as she meticulously sculpted and groomed the planet and the people on it. A place where Scarlet got what she deserved.

And she deserved everything.

She deserved their love, their praise-

their money.

For once though, Scarlet’s dream was expanded, stretched beyond the borders of herself. She viewed herself as a proud lioness in a world of sheep but now-

The lioness had a cub.

Scarlet’s beauty was a point of pride, proof to herself of her own worthiness to rule. She knew though that eventually time would take her beauty from her. She waited for it every morning, searching her own face obsessively for any sign of wrinkles, combing through her hair strand by strand for any sign of grey. Salon and health center stays had become a weekly ritual, half for vanity and half a futile attempt to prolong her own life. What good is an empire if it crumbles to ash the moment you die? Scarlet was hounded by the idea of age, of death, she couldn’t comprehend the world without her as it’s guiding star, her empire falling without her influence.

Which is where Violet came in.

Scarlet hadn’t expected to love the child she adopted, she hadn’t expected to feel anything at all really. Most of the time she felt nothing when she looked at people, perhaps say for fleeting pity and contempt, though there were times when emotion was demanded from her and she had to fake it. She supposes that is what led her to become an actress early in her career, she had to play a character her entire life while in the presence of others.

When she first saw Violet though, the real Violet, not the disgusting bug thing she had come to Scarlet as, she had felt a fierce wave of fiery possessiveness come over her. Violet was beautiful. She was perfect. She was HERS. 

Violet was her legacy, her sequel, destined to take over Scarlet’s empire and continue Scarlet’s ambitions and aspirations.

Violet was a Troll though, but Scarlet thought of it as only a technicality. Violet was only technically a Troll the same way a diamond is made out of the same carbon of the dirt it was dug out of, related yes, but far superior. 

Scarlet thought of Trolls as a bunch of pompous, vicious, monsters, without recognizing the irony of Scarlet of all people condemning a whole race for those particular traits. Violet wasn’t like them, Violet was so far beyond them. When it came to her daughter’s heritage, Violet, Scarlet considered, was a beautiful flower who came from a filthy pot of dirt.

Flowers needed to be tended to in order to blossom and Scarlet was determined to make Violet a beautiful, intelligent, and fearsome creature after her own image.

A leading lady.

Let the show begin.

  
  
  


The next few years of Violet’s life were a blur of tutors, buzzing in and out of the Calimistrum tower to teach her math, latin, literature, geography, business and acting.

“Stand up straight.” Scarlet demanded, looking down at her daughter, the little girl’s black hair braided into twin pigtails, each neatly tied at the end with a crimson bow. 

Violet looked up at her mother, standing up straighter and pointing her toes like her mother taught her, prim and poised in her plaid blue skirt, knee high socks, collared shirt and sweater vest. “Yes mother”

Scarlet smiled down at her daughter “Recite to me Hamlet Act I, scene 3, line 79”

Violet smiled “ This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

Scarlet nodded “Very good Violet!” She leaned down and gave her daughter a peck on the cheek. Violet giggled and hunched up her little shoulders happily.

“Now.” Scarlet straightened up “Go get your violin and I’ll send in the next tutor.”

Violet nodded “Yes mother.” She then skipped down the hall, her little braided pigtails fluttering.

Violet ran past Boris as he came to the door. He looked into the room, concern in his furrowed brows and the way his mustache curved. He looked at the school room Scarlet had made for her daughter, a single child sized desk facing towards a large desk for Violet’s many tutors. Books were piled in large stacks on the desk, seeming to loom ominously towards Violet’s own small desk.

Boris picked up one of the books. “Advanced latin?” He turned towards Scarlet, worry in his eyes “She’s seven.”

Scarlet smiled, picking up one of the hamlet paper backed books and tapping him on the nose with it. “As Shakespeare said- Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.”   
  
  


 

“Parry!” Scarlet yelled from the side of the gym, tapping a sharp stiletto against the padded blue mats. She scowled at the match in front of her, two figures were fencing, one very large and another quite shorter both dressed in white padded fencing gear.

The smaller of the two figure grunted, defending viciously against the other but unable to gain the upper hand in the mock fight. The larger human jumped back, feigned easily to the side, leaving Violet to stumble into the space he had once been.

“Come on Violet.” Scarlet squinted angrily over her sunglasses, her red-painted mouth pinched “Keep your arms up! Come on!”

Violet swung back, forcing his fencing blade away, she feigned to the side, kicking the back of her instructor’s knee, forcing him downwards to the gym mat, knocking off his helmet with a swift kick. She put her blade to his neck, panting heavily.

“Yield.” Violet demanded, tearing off her own helmet, her hair flying free as she squinted down at him.

Scarlet walked towards them, clapping, her sharp nails glinting in the light “Well done Violet! Well done!” 

Scarlet leaned down with her daughter on the gym mat, on her knees with her hands on violet’s shoulders. She set her chin down on Violet’s head, Violet’s blade still against the neck of the instructor “Very, very well done.” She kissed the top of Violet’s head.

Violet looked up at her mother, her cheeks flushed a pleased cerulean, her big grey eyes wide. “Did you see that momma? Did you see it?”

Scarlet hummed. “I saw it! I saw it.” She reached across Violet’s shoulder towards Violet’s human fencing instructor, a young man in his late twenties with tousled black hair pulled into a low ponytail. He glared up at Scarlet, his hazel eyes boring holes into her’s. She put a sharp nail on his cheek, smiling coyly when he flinched away. Her nail traveled down his cheek and towards and towards his neck, tracing the shuddering vein where she could feel his heartbeat staccato with prior exertion and fear. “Oh, Gabriel...  “ she tsked “You have to be better than that.”

Scarlet turned her head to whisper in Violet’s pointed ear. “See this?” she whispered, running a finger across the vein of the young man’s throat, Violet’s ear flickering slightly as she felt Scarlet’s breath “One little nick to this vein right here-” She laughed slightly, her deep chuckle reverberating through Violet’s skull and settling at the base of her horns “And you could’ve snuffed him out like a candle.” She pressed the vein with one sharp nail and Violet’s instructor stiffened with pain.

“Don’t.” Violet whispered. She struggled to keep her hand on the sword from shaking. Her mother hated to see her afraid.

Scarlet leaned her head against her daughter’s shoulder, looking at Violet’s instructor kneeling before them, a half lidded almost dreamy look in her eyes as she watched the glint of the sword in Violet’s hands, following the blade to where it sat against his neck “Oh you silly little thing.” She pressed a kiss to her daughter’s cheek “Did you really think I was just going to slice him open?”

Yes. Violet thought to herself. Immediately hating herself for thinking something so treacherous.

Scarlet laughed, as if her daughter not wanting to see her kill a man was just the cutest little thing. “I wasn’t going to kill him.” She laughed “I just wanted to prove a point.” 

Violet looked back at her expectantly.

She hummed gently “Violet you just defeated him.” Her tone was the same as when she quizzed her daughter on Shakespeare. “What does that mean?”

“That I’m better than him.” Violet parroted back.

“That’s right.” Scarlet cooed.

Violet was breathing heavily, still sweaty from the fencing match. With a blade in her hand, looking down at her fencing instructor, his pulse hammering and his breath staggered. It was so easy to believe, it was so easy to believe it. Violet had won. That was proof? That was proof right?

Wasn’t it?

Something happened in that moment. Violet’s mind had already been sharp, filled with adrenaline from the match. A hot tingly sensation bloomed behind her left eye, throbbing deeper and deeper as her breath quickened. It traveled from her eye, spreading through her mind like a watercolor brush being tipped to the page, coalescing in the roots of her horns.

Suddenly she was aware.

Far too aware.

She could feel the hum of the fluorescent lights, Her mother’s breath and the way her red painted lips quirked up into a sharp smile, her instructor’s breath and the quickness of his heart and then-

His mind.

Fear shuddered through him, hot and quick, shuddering through his veins. It was acidic, bitter like the taste of blood. It made Violet’s fingers quiver, a predatory instinct inside of her forgetting that her mother had dulled her talons long ago, wanting to strike, to find blood. There was more though, a deep horror in his gut as he looked up at her.

Not her though….

Her mother.

He felt horror and fear and anger. His thoughts were jumbled through Violet’s head, ricocheting off the insides of her skull like bullet fragments. He hated the look in Scarlet’s eyes, the way Scarlet rested her head against Violet’s shoulder. He hated the way Scarlet looked at Violet. He- He-

How dare he! How dare he feel-

Pity! 

Violet shook her head and growled. How dare he feel pity towards Violet! He saw her being twisted, becoming cruel and sharp, a vindictive clone of her mother. How dare he fear FOR her! How dare he see a sad little girl when it was Violet who brought him to his knees! How dare he see a pitable tragedy when Violet had a blade to his throat! How dare he be afraid for HER and not HIMSELF!

Her mother wasn’t a monster! Her mother wasn’t a monster and Violet wasn’t a victim! They were both lions! Lions together ruling over sheep! 

“Shut up!” Violet whispered, pressing the blade down harder. She wasn’t the victim! She wasn’t! She grit her teeth as his pity for her only deepened.

Another presence made itself known. Violet could feel her mother’s mind rise from the cloud of grey sickly fear. It was dark and sharp, the feeling of running one’s thumb across the blade of an extremely sharp knife, the chills down your spine when you realize just how easily you could cut yourself. She could feel her intention, watching the man in front of them. A contented cat with a mouse under their paw.

She was enjoying his pain, his humiliation.

Violet’s hand quivered where she gripped the handle of the sword. 

Scarlet’s knife edge of a mind turned its attention towards Violet. Calculating, growing darker, a cat’s disposition, deciding whether or not to pounce. Violet was under a microscope, unable to breath as she felt her mother coldly picking her apart.

**_Weakness?_ ** Violet could hear the word hiss through her mother’s skull. Her mind became clearer, the knife’s edge closer to Violet’s own pulse. A mental sword to Violet’s throat as Violet held a blade to his.  **_We can’t have that now can we? We can’t let her get weak._ **

Violet swallowed, terrified of that knife’s edge that was her mother’s mind. Something she had felt against her all her life that it had almost faded into background noise but now she had no choice but to be dizzyingly aware of it.

“I’m done here.” Violet announced. She just barely managed to keep the shake from her voice, swallowing her own bile that threatened to rise up. Thoughts that weren’t her own were still pounding through her skull. She threw her sword to the side of the gym, skidding across the padded mats.

She felt the blade of Scarlet’s mind shift. “What do you mean, darling?” Scarlet asked carefully. Violet could feel her measuring her, gauging her, a piece of meat on the deli scale.

Violet turned to her mother, schooling her features. Feeling her mother’s mind and eyes on her. “I won didn’t I?” Violet raised her chin proudly “That means I’m better. Since I’m better than him, he has nothing else to teach me.”

Scarlet’s mind softened minutely, the purr of a large cat after the kill. “Very well.” Scarlet acquiesced. “You may go.”

Violet nodded jerkily. She trudged over to her bag on the side of the wall, relieved to have the needle sharp attention of her mother’s mind off of her for now. She shrugged off her fencing uniform, trying to wall herself off from the thoughts but-

**_She’ll turn out just like her mother._ ** Violet’s instructor thought, sadness and pity for her welling in his heart.  **_She’ll make her a monster._ **

Violet wanted to run back to him, scream at him to stop, slap him across the face and dare him to think that she was weak again. 

She wasn’t the victim. She wasn’t!

Violet ran from the room to keep her mother from seeing the cerulean tears welling up in her eyes.   
  
  


 

Violet’s fencing instructor rose from the mat. The young man looked after where Violet had run to, a worried frown on his face.

“Well that settles it.” Scarlet rose from the mats as well, turning dismissively away from the young man, walking to the edge of the room to get her purse. She picked up the gucci purse and slung it over a shoulder “We won’t be in need of your services anymore.”

The young man stiffened, watching Scarlet warily. He combed his dark hair from his face. “Ma’m, I’ve been loyal to your corporation for years.”

Scarlet looked over her shoulder at him, her red painted lips quirking into an amused smile. “Well you heard it yourself…” She walked slowly towards him, her sharp heels sounding quietly against the padded floors. “You have nothing else to teach her, you should be asking yourself...”

He stared her down, stubbornly refusing to break eye contact, even as Scarlet sidled into his space. 

She looked up at him through the curtain of her blonde hair, her hands coming to rest on the sweaty fabric of his tank top. Scarlet smiled, slow, wide and predatory “...What is it that you can do for me?” she whispered, her hands sliding down his tank top, traveling ever so slowly towards his belt.

He broke eye contact with Scarlet for just a moment, looking back at where Violet had run off to. He remembers the look in the little girl’s eyes, the tears that had been welling up, the way that Scarlet had curled possessively around her, the way the woman’s sharpened nails had dung into the little girl’s shoulder as Violet’s hands trembled around her sword.

He made a decision.   
  
  


 

Jukilo stood in the airport terminal, he looked down at his watch, his leg shaking nervously. “Honestly, where could they be?” He groused. He squinted off into the crowd “Dad, they should be here by now.”

Crocodile dad huffed in agreement. He stood next to his son, a starbucks in one clawed paw and a pair of sunglasses perched on the end of his snout. A fisherman’s hat was perched on his scaley head, a gift from Earl during one of their fishing trips. Crocodile dad was a ten foot tall Alternian armored lizard lusus, one of the most widely respected lusii on Alternia, having raised many a grub, including Jukilo. He had come to Earth to adopt a human child and was now raising his wonderful little Minnie! There had been quite a bit of nonsense at first, what with Congressman Whiteman trying to take his daughter away and then euthanize Crocodile dad, but now that Congressman Whiteman was in jail things were going great! He had six good years on Earth so far! Raising his little Minnie on the planet he wasn’t hatched on, but loved with all of his heart. His wonderful little human was eight years old and each day he thought he couldn’t be prouder of her, but woke up the next day with even more fierce loving pride for her in his heart.

Jukilo and Sharon, with the help of Laura and Thomas’s scientific knowledge and a bag of Alternian gold coins Laquda had kept in her and Sharon’s garage, were starting a research company. 

Or er, were attempting to. Even with Laquda’s considerable wealth it had taken quite a bit of time to jump through all the red tape, secure their credentials and put together a facility. Laura and Thomas had handled most of the scientific mumbo-jumbo, wrote the grant proposals and hired the right personnel, some of whom were gleefully scalped from Scarlet’s research company. Now finally they were ready for the next step.

They had come to the conclusion that Scarlet had too much of a stranglehold on what people knew about trolls, she owned the research company that looked into matters pertaining to Alternian troll children, wrote the manual on their care, and distributed the books in her bookstores and sold them on her television networks. She peddled in what was not exactly untrue, but prejudicial and biased. Just the other day Jukilo had turned on the news and had seen a news story on the local channel entitled “Is it safe to let human children play with TROLLS? Meet the fanged aliens coming to your school’s playgrounds!”. It had been based entirely on a not untrue but flawed piece of data from one of Scarlet’s research groups, and with a little digging he found that the network was owned by Scarlet’s Lactrodectus broadcasting group.

She had too much power, and little by little she was using her power to turn public opinion against them, against the grub distribution initiative and against Alternians in general.

Alternia post the reign of The Condescension, and the new Empress Feferi’s “No Culling” policy, was swamped with grubs. Alternia’s entire relationship with Earth was based on helping these grubs find loving homes among the naturally adoptive humans.

A lot of little lives depended on this program, on being adopted by nice humans and raised on Earth when Lusii couldn’t be found on Alternia for them.

Which is why Scarlet HAD to be stopped.

They had to show the human public a more loving and optimistic view on grub rearing, countering Scarlet’s fear mongering directly. They needed help to do that though, and while Jukilo loved his father, they needed more experts on troll rearing. Which is why they were at the airport today.

“Daaaaad” Minnie pulled on one of Crocodile dad’s clawed paws, leaning back so that she was practically dangling from him “Tell me about them! What are they like?”

Crocodile dad huffed, smiling fondly down at his little human daughter. The sunglasses perched at the tip of his nose were dislodged for a moment. He righted them again, placing them carefully and taking a moment to adjust his fisherman’s hat as well. He liked the hat and glasses and thought that when combined with a starbucks made him look like a true Floridian.

Crocodile dad’s human friend and neighbor “Laura” was a scientist woman who worked with special needs children. She had specialized in working with children on the autism spectrum and at times had employed sign language to help communicate with children who were non verbal. They hadn’t thought of it much during the first year of Crocodile dad living in Florida, (in their defense they were dealing with a lot at the time) but Laura came to realize that Crocodile dad would do well to know some sign language when a pen and paper just weren’t practical. He didn’t have the right amount of fingers for all of the signs (Since he had just three talons and a thumb) but she was right when she told him it would be useful.

Crocodile dad tapped a talon to his snout, trying to think of the right word to describe them. Minnie looked expectantly up at him. Crocodile dad put out a paw, palm up. He then took his other paw and with his talons flattened out he made a sort of rubbing circle over his other paw.

Minnie cocked her head, her brows furrowed for a moment as she tried to remember the word “Fuzzy?”

Crocodile dad nodded, pleased with himself. He had been so happy to learn this new language and share it with his daughter! Earth was a wonderful place and changed his life for the better every day!

Minnie bounced on the heels of her feet, her curly pigtails bouncing with her “What else! What else!”

Crocodile dad put both paws in front of him, both thumbs up as if he was particularly enthusiastic about something. He put both thumbs up towards his center before widening them apart.

Minnie blinked “Big?” her brows furrowed “So they’re big and fuzzy?”

Crocodile dad nodded enthusiastically.

Minnie hummed, trying to picture them and not coming up with much  “...but what are th-”

Suddenly there was screaming from the other side of the airport, humans scrambled out of a doorway marked “Terminal B” someone screamed, people dropped their bags as they ran terrified out of the terminal.

“OH MY GOD!” Someone shrieked “WHAT IS THAT THING?”

There was a loud echoing trill from the other terminal, a cross between a large bassoon that housed a hive of furious bees, and a drawer full of silverware being tossed down the stairs.

Jukilo’s face fell, his ears flattening “...oh no…”

Crocodile dad smiled, clapping his taloned hands together.

Minnie turned to look at them “What? What is it?”

Crocodile looked down at his daughter. He put his hand to his chest, up in a fist, he then held out his thumb and pinky, flicking his fist down.

“That…” Minnie translated.

Crocodile dad pointed out a finger, making a wide arc around his body.

“Them.” Minnie frowned “That them?”

Crocodile dad nodded.

Minnie looked back at where humans were streaming out of the airport terminal in a panic. She bit her lip. “....oh no.”

  
  
  


Violet rushed through the hallway out of the gym, the cold air a balm for her overheated skin. The gym of calimistrum tower was next to the spa and health center. Hair stylists were in the hallway, chatting in a friendly way amongst themselves but quieted slightly when they saw Violet approach. She could feel the relief in their minds when they saw that Violet wasn’t with her mother for once.

**_Poor girl._ ** Violet felt one of the women think, looking down at Violet like a wet stray kitten, her eyelids caked with gold eyeshadow, her wide mouth curved into a slight frown.  **_The little thing never has any fun with that witch around._ **

Violet pushed past the woman, her shoulders hunched as if she could push out the echoes of the woman’s concern that rattled through her mind.

**_I don’t think I’ve ever seen that kid happy._ ** Another one of the women thought, taking a sip from a paper cup as they regarded Violet, their dark winged eyeliner seeming to weigh their eyes down in a sleepy way  **_What does that bitch DO to this poor kid?_ **

NOTHING! Violet wanted to scream. She wanted to kick them in the shins. She wanted to point them out to her mother and have them fired so she would never have to hear those kinds of things again. NOTHING! SHE LOVES ME! SHE LOVES ME SHE HAS TO! SHE JUST WANTS ME TO BE THE BEST IS ALL! SHE’S TOUGH BUT SO AM I! I’M A LION AND YOU ARE ALL WORTHLESS SHEEP!

She felt treacherous. Some part of her had thought these things before. She had hated herself for thinking them, tried to tell herself that it wasn’t true. Her mother loved her! She did! 

**_Poor girl. It’s a shame_ **  Another one of the women looked down at Violet, her brown eyes boring holes into her as she took a drag of a cigarette, the smoke curling out of her nose in wisping tendrils   **_She’ll end up just like her mother._ **

Violet ran away from them, their thoughts still buzzing through her mind. The more upset she got the more her mind spread, hearing more and more snippets of thought from the salon workers as she ran past them.

**_I wonder what I should have for dinner tonight_ **

**_I remember when she got Lila fired. I miss her._ **

**_Ugh my mother in law is going to be visiting. Fuck off Helen!_ **

**_Isn’t that Scarlet’s daughter? Crap that means Scarlet is here somewhere_ **

**_I hope she’s ok_ **

**_Damn I broke a nail_ **

**_She needs someone other than that horrible beast of a woman_ **

**_I shouldn’t have worn this dress today, orange isn’t my color_ **

Violet ran to the elevators, punching in the executive code with shaking fingers. The elevator door opened and Violet clambered inside, panicked out of her mind. Her back hit the back of the elevator as the doors closed, voices still echoing through her head. Violet put her fingers in her ears, her eyes clenched shut, trying to will them away. A deep throbbing ache continuing to pound through her head, coming to a sharp point at the bases of her horns and behind her left eye.

Violet hissed, pressing her hands into her eye sockets. “Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!” she screamed into the empty elevator. She slid down the glass wall of the elevator, cerulean tears striping down her cheeks.

It wasn’t true. Violet told herself desperately. It wasn’t true, her mother loved her.

The doors of the elevator opened into Scarlet’s private penthouse, the gleam of the silver and gold made Violet’s throbbing headache even worse.

Boris was sitting down at the living room table, happily polishing some silverware. “Welcome back Violet I-” He turned to look at Violet, his smile immediately falling at the sight of her. He jumped up from his seat, his polishing abandoned when he saw Violet curled onto the floor of the elevator, her hands pressed to her ears and tears running down her cheeks.

Boris jumped into the elevator, his brows furrowed as he gently righted Violet, holding her steady against the glass wall of the elevator. “Violet! Sweetheart! Are you ok?”

Violet looked up at him, the crease between his brows the shape his mustache curled into when he frowned. “Please.” She whimpered “Don’t think too loud. They’re all thinking too loud.”

Boris paused “...ok honey…” He soothed, gathering Violet into his arms. He carried her out of the elevator, brushing back her hair and wiping her tears with a hanky. “I won’t think too loud...let’s make you something to eat and get you to bed ok?”

Boris’s mind was the opposite of her mother’s. It was slow, blunted around the corners and soft. Heavy and content. Comfortable like your favorite quilt. The type of mind that cares more about being kind than being clever.

Violet sniffed, burying her face in his suit jacket as she cried. 

Boris rocked her back and forth, rubbing her back comfortingly. “You poor little thing…” He whispered, kissing her temple gently.

She wrapped her little arms around his neck and promptly fell asleep, the tension leaving her like a puppet with their strings cut.

Boris tucked the little girl to bed, watching her from the bedroom door as she slept fitfully. He went to his own quarters, a small room to the side of the kitchen. The room was small and humble, a wire-frame bed, a beaten up wooden night stand that Scarlet obviously hadn’t chosen and a small bathroom off to the side. Boris’s shoes were lined neatly by the door, a couple of cheery framed pictures of his grandchildren on the nightstand. 

Boris hung up his suit coat before pulling back his clothes, searching for something at the back of his closet. He took a box from his closet, something made from dark wood with a hinge that squeaked when he opened it. The box was filled with pictures of Violet as she had grown up over the years and the grub rearing pamphlets that Jukilo had given Scarlet all those years ago, a smiling white crocodile peering back at Boris from the back of the pamphlet. Boris looked to the bottom of the pamphlet to the email at the bottom of the screen.

He took out his computer and began to tap out a very important email.

An email to ask a giant white crocodile for help.

  
  
  


Jukilo, Crocodile dad and Minnie rushed into terminal B, against the tide of screaming human travelers who were running out of the terminal.

“Please!” Jukilo tried to stop the flow of panicked humans, which was like trying to herd cats “Don’t panic! It’s just a lusus!”

Crocodile dad and Minnie continued on through the airport. There was an odd trilling squawk from their left, they turned to see-

On Alternia there were many creatures that resembled creatures on Earth, Trolls and humans managed to look quite similar while being extremely disparate in how they evolved, and many lusii looked like common Earth animals. Scientists from both species had theorized that this was simply because there were some forms that were more efficient than others, and that on planets with similar biomes it wouldn’t be quite so far fetched for creatures to develop similar ways of existing within those biomes.

That being said the Alternian raptor lusus was one of those examples of an Alternian lusus that had a similar counterpart on Earth. Bone analysis of the Alternian raptor lusus found that they were remarkably similar to the fossils of velociraptors that lived on Earth millions of years ago. However, far from the scaley, streamlined death machines that prowled ancient Earth jungles and terrified human movie goers, the creature riding the airport baggage claim was-

The raptor lusus looked like a giant, fat chickadee with a dinosaur snout. The fluffy monstrosity was perched happily on a suitcase, screeching smugly as they cycled slowly through the airport lobby. They waved their long feathered tail, nosing through another suitcase on the conveyor belt with excitement.

The raptor lusus looked up at Minnie and Crocodile dad, their four big beady black eyes wide, munching through something that looked suspiciously like a box of girl scout cookies that had been surreptitiously smuggled in the suitcase the lusus was rooting through, cardboard and all.

Jukilo stalked into the terminal. “Some people.” He groused, his hands on his hips “Are too busy screaming to have a rational conversation. It’s like they’ve never seen a raptor lusus before!” 

Jukilo turned to the scene before him, the raptor lusus had chocolate smeared all over their snout as they slowly cycled away from him on the airport baggage claim.

“Ah.” Jukilo sighed. He took out a clipboard and pen, ticking something off “That’s one of you at least, now where are the rest of them?”

Crocodile dad bowed slightly to the lusus on the conveyor belt, a deep chuffing sort of sound rumbling through him.

The raptor lusus turned their attention towards him, the pupils of all four eyes narrowing to a slit as they tilted their head in that owlish bird sort of way, turning their head so sharply that it was almost upside-down. They fluffed out their feathers for a moment “BWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHKKKK?” 

Crocodile dad made a sound almost like a bark but deeper, more musical. Like a middle schooler with no musical talent took a deep breath and blew everything they had through a damaged sousaphone and then dropped unconscious from the effort. Like someone had left a golden retriever in charge of a marching band and let it write the music too.

The raptor lusus stepped off the conveyor belt, keeping their eyes level with Crocodile dad despite the way they tottered across the tiled floor like a fat chicken. A pair of spindly scaled legs pinwheeling underneath their fat fluffy chickadee body, their talons clicking heavily against the hard floor.

They stood in front of Crocodile dad, throwing their head back and making a deep humming trill like “HOOOWAKKK! HOOOWAKKK! HOOOWAKKK!”

Crocodile dad responded with a gentler warbling trill. Both Lusii circled one another, snuffling each other with interest. When they both deemed their snuffling sufficient, both Lusii gave each other a long lick across the snouts.

They were best friends now.

Jukilo had his hands on his hips “Are you two DONE now?”

The raptor lusus turned to Jukilo. “BWAAAAK!” They nosed the troll in the stomach, knocking Jukilo gently to the floor and-

The raptor lusus clambered onto a struggling Jukilo like a chicken on an egg, tucking them under their fluffy feathers . “BWAAAK!” they announced, proud of themselves.

Jukilo clawed out from under the fat fluffy raptor, spitting out a mouthful of downy fluff. “SIR PLEASE GET OFF OF ME THIS INSTANT.”

“I dunno da.” A small voice said from the other side of the terminal, a thick Canadian accent twisting around their words “It’s a big airport I wonder where they c-”

A large white elk tapped into terminal B, a little human standing next to them. The Elk was larger than an Earth elk with pristine pearly white fur that shone slightly, like the way a stream shimmers on a sunny day. Their antlers twisted into tall elegant shapes behind them. They looked like snow, like quiet forests during moonlight nights. Even just looking at them you would swear a cold breeze would blow across your skin. Large black liquid eyes took in the scene around them, focusing on Crocodile dad. What had initially looked like only two pointed deer ears unfolded into six, making an elegant furred fan on either sides of their face.

Elk Father cocked his head, regarding the other lusii. He threw his head back and made a low sort of howl, like the wind blowing forlornly through the trees. “HWOOOOO”

Crocodile dad nodded, responding with the low musical kind of bark he greeted the raptor lusus with. The Raptor lusus simply “Bwoked” in a friendly way, Jukilo still struggling to get out from underneath them.

Elk father  tapped towards the group and all three lusii proceeded to snuffle and lick each other in greeting. When Elk father spotted Minnie next to Crocodile dad, he turned to his own son, hiding shyly behind his flank, nosing him out and pushing him towards her.

“Dad!” The little boy complained, flushed with embarrassment. Elk father only licked his cheek in encouragement.

The little boy was around Minnie’s age, maybe a year younger. He had lovely dark skin that contrasted in a striking way when he laid a hand on his father’s fur. Belligerent curly hair was attempting to escape from the red beanie he wore. He smiled shyly at Minnie, a large endearing gap between his two front teeth. “Hi!” He held out a hand nervously “I’m Max!”

Minnie grinned, taking his hand and shaking it “I’m Minnie!”

Jukilo finally clambered out from under the raptor lusus, he rose from the floor, angrily dusting off feathers from his suit. He took out his clipboard once more, picking off a couple of feathers before making another tick “Ah, Elk father. It’s good to see that you could make it all the way from Canada.”

Elk father nodded slightly.

Jukilo looked around the airport, pushing away the raptor lusus when they made another attempt to try and sit on him. “That leaves just-”

There was a loud hoot from the other side of the airport. Something that looked like a small shaggy man stumbled towards them, six gangly arms slapped against the floor as it trundled towards them, toddling back and forth on stubby back legs. 

The monkey lusus reached the group, a large smile on their face, large baboon-like tusks escaping past their lips as two pairs of large gleaming eyes blinked out of sync. “HWA!” The six-armed monkey lusus chuffed lowly “HWA! HWA!”

Crocodile dad didn’t particularly like six-armed monkey lusii, there had been a very large colony of them living in the trees of his swamp and they hadn’t been the uh… best of neighbors. 

The six-armed monkey lusus chuffed in a friendly way. Two slings wound across the monkey lusus’s chest, each one containing a tiny newly hatched grub, a little yellow blood and a little green blood peeking out from their bundles. The lusus used their many arms to soothe both tiny little grubs at the same time.

Crocodile dad had to admit that any lusus that could take care of two grubs at a time were a worthy lusus. The newest lusus was happily snuffled and licked thoroughly by the group.

Jukilo nodded and checked off the last box on his list. He looked at the group, sizing them up. “Well gentlemen-”

The raptor lusus squawked indignantly. Elk father huffed and turned up his nose.

Jukilo grimaced “Or er… Lusii.” He looked at the group of them, smiling slightly “We have a job to do.”   
  
  


 

Emmet Finley was a small pudgy man with the sort of round bespectacled face of a traditional academic. He hadn’t meant to be a father, but during the first contact with Alternia he was one of the first biologists to travel to Alternia to study the fauna there. He had been working with a flock of raptor lusii when one of them had suddenly died, leaving their child without a caretaker. Usually in this sort of situation another member of the flock would have taken her in, but the presence of a culling drone and the lack of any flock members at the time had complicated the matter. Emmet of course didn’t want the little girl to die, so in a panic he had run in front of the drone and announced that HE would be her new lusus. The drone had simply scanned him and registered him as the girl’s new lusus in the most anti climactic adoption Emmet had ever seen.

Which is how Emmet came back to Earth with a small, extremely angry six and a half sweep old purple blood. He was young and had absolutely no idea what he was doing and quite frankly as someone who couldn’t even have a polite disagreement with a colleague without bursting into tears, the screaming little girl who had promised to “Sacrifice his worthless human life to the dark messiahs” had terrified him out of his wits.

However they had come to a sort of agreement after a while. His daughter Lolida was still a stuck up bossy little cretin, but she also had her more endearing qualities. He found that most of her anger had been a mask for the terror she had felt from being taken from her home and everything she knew to a new planet. 

Their relationship wasn’t perfect of course, but they had managed to build an odd comfortable sort of family between the two of them over the past six years. 

Emmet had been one of the experts called to Crocodile dad’s defense when the former Congressman Whiteman had tried to take his human daughter Minnie from him and euthanize the lusus. He had since become a member of Crocodile dad’s group and had enjoyed a small network of other parents to talk about child rearing with. Emmet had already been colleagues with Crocodile dad’s friend Thomas and his wife Laura, who happened to be Crocodile dad’s neighbors and had been appointed by the government to oversee the first adoption of a human by a lusus. One of Crocodile dad’s friends Sharon, who was dating Crocodile dad’s oldest daughter Laquda, had a daughter named Alimah who was dating Emmet’s daughter Lolida.

Which is how Emmet came to be hosting the first meeting between humans and lusii. Jukilo had explained briefly about bringing parents and lusii together to share tips on raising troll children. Emmet was honestly very excited about the idea and had said yes to hosting the meeting without question.

However if he had known about the spectacle that would unfold on his lawn he may have been more hesitant.

Ben “Bulletproof” Black was a soldier of the U.S army and as such was one of the first to be given a grub as a sort of experiment on how well humans could bond with grubs. The answer after him was proven to be “Very well” and he had taken to fatherhood with extremely loud enthusiastic zeal. He was tall, having to stoop down into most doorways, broad shouldered and muscular with a square jaw that looked like it could grind flour. He looked like you could throw a bowling ball at him and the bowling ball would crack in half. He looked as if a bullet shot at him would quietly apologize before veering away. He looked like if he was ever bitten by a snake the snake would die. He looked like he went shark punching on the weekends for fun. He looked like-

He looked like he was doing one-handed push-ups on Emmet’s front lawn. His Daughter Lily was sitting on his back, the little yellow-blooded troll giggling as he went up and down.

Emmet was peeking from the window watching, hunched behind his curtains as best as he could too keep Ben from seeing him. “Oh sugar honey iced tea” He wheezed quietly, pushing up his glasses, already beginning to sweat “That’s a whole lotta man.”

“Oh my god.” Lolida rolled her eyes where she was sitting on the couch. She was nineteen now and the purple blood’s style had evolved from the early days where she would dress like a hot topic exploded, but had never lost her taste for the gothic. She wore a dark black dress, accented with long black gloves and stockings. Her femur-like horns were longer than when she was thirteen, rising up from her long inky black hair. She looked up at her father, her winged eyeliner sharp enough to kill a man. “Can you BE any more pathetic? Just ask him out!”

Emmet turned to his daughter, absolutely aghast, wrapping the curtain around himself as if he could shield himself from his daughter’s scandalous ideas. “Are you crazy? NO!”

Lolida shrugged “You won’t ever know unless you ask.” She grinned sharp-toothed at him “Or if you like I could just use my chuckle-voodoo powers to make him like you back! OOOOO!!!” She waggled her eyebrows and wiggled her fingers in a ‘mystical’ way.

Emmet sighed. Lolida was a purple blood and was scheduled to be a member of the church of the mirthful messiahs before Empress Feferi took the throne and disbanded the church, but after coming to Earth the troll girl hadn’t had any proper training to develop her powers. As far as Emmet could tell Lolida couldn’t do much other than direct her pet mice around and make babies cry, though the second thing might be more from her crouching over cradles and making weird faces as she concentrated on trying to control their minds. He felt a bit guilty that he wasn’t able to nurture whatever skill she could’ve had, but she and Alimah were planning on getting internships with the Earth Embassy on Alternia so she could travel and get some training from a former subjugglator.

Lolida looked up from where she was texting Alimah on her phone. She watched as a van pulled up through their front driveway. Ben nodded to the driver, rising from where he had been doing push-ups on the lawn, brushed frass off his pants and-

Lolida gave her dad a look “...Hey dad he’s coming up to the front door.”

Emmet hunched in on himself “WHAT?”

The front door slammed open, Ben stooped into the living room. “HEY GUYS THE LUSII ARE HERE!”

Emmet shrieked and tried to hide himself with the curtain. He ended up twisting the cloth around himself, tripping and falling to his living room floor in a loud THUMP dragging the curtain with him and making the curtain rod pop off from the wall.

Ben looked worriedly to the wrapped up lump of curtain and small mortified man on the carpet. He crouched over Emmet. “....You alright little dude?”

Emmet at the moment was busy being extremely mortified. “Ah…” His round face was completely red. “Yes?”

Ben nodded, impassive. “Kay.”

Emmet squeaked as he was suddenly lifted from the floor, tree trunk arms holding him under his knees and behind his back. Emmet’s face got impossibly redder as Ben placidly carried him across the living room and into Emmet’s dining room. He sat Emmet down at the table, the small man shocked stiff by the encounter.

Before either of them could react the front door burst open once again. Crocodile dad lumbered into the room, followed by raptor lusus, Elk Father and the Monkey lusus. 

Jukilo brought up the rear, helping to herd the unruly group. “Alright, Alright.” He took out his clipboard once more “We have a lot to discuss!”

Emmet was still stock straight in his chair, red-faced and wheezing slightly, his hair and glasses askew. Lolida side-stepped over to her father, surreptitiously passing the man his inhaler. Emmet gave her a grateful look and took a puff while attentions were currently not focused on him. He fixed his glasses and did his best to smooth down his hair.

“So um…” Emmet waved shyly to the lusii that were in his house. “Welcome to my home! My name is Emmet and this is my daughter Lolida.”

Lolida waved awkwardly “Uh, Hi!”

The raptor lusus took one look at Emmet and Lolida and with a heartfelt “BWOK!” Launched themselves across the table at the pair of them. Emmet was knocked from his chair and both he and Lolida were engulfed in fluffy white feathers as they were lovingly sat on by what amounted to a giant dinosaur chicken.

Lolida furiously spat out a couple of feathers. “WHAT ARE Y-” She was cut off as the raptor lusus nuzzled her, making a soft, low cooing sound.

Lolida’s eyes filled with tears “Aunty? Aunty is that really you?” The lusus nodded their dinosaur-like head and Lolida sat up and hugged the lusus around their neck.

Emmet was trying to push himself out of the sea of fluffy feathers when something caught his attention. A little yellow tag around one of the lusus’s scrabbly little raptor hands. Emmet sat up, a large smile across his face “Specimen R-37 is that YOU?”

The lusus chirped happily and nuzzled Emmet as well. Emmet laughed and hugged the lusus as well “It’s so good to see you!” Emmet turned to the group, the smile on his face like that of a child who found their puppy after it had run away. “R-37 was one of the first lusii I tagged on my Alternian expedition!” 

Lolida turned to him, an uncharacteristic grin on her face “They were my lusus’s hatch mate!”

Introductions were made all around. The humans were all snuffled and licked and in return the humans taught then how to shake hands. The monkey lusus took to hand shaking very well, using their six hands to shake every available hand in the vicinity. Crocodile dad brought out a tray of brownies they had made for the occasion, Raptor lusus pulled out a tray of impeccably made finger sandwiches, which was remarkable because nobody had any clue how the fluffy monstrosity made 

such delicate sandwiches or where on Earth the lusus had been stashing them. Elk father presented some finely iced homemade sugar cookies, confounding the humans who couldn’t figure out how the hoofed lusus would have even held an icing bag. Monkey lusus made everyone a cup of tea, pouring and passing simultaneously with their many arms. 

What came next was an aggressive sort of “Dading” in which Crocodile dad and Elk father took out their wallets and showed everyone pictures of Minnie and Maximilian to both children’s mortification. Raptor lusus produced a grub picture of lolida, to her utter mortification. Ben took out his wallet and showed the table pictures of Lily, bragging about how good she was doing in fourth grade. Monkey lusus showed pictures of his new grubs as well as taking them out of their slings to show them off to the other lusii and human parents. Emmet giggled as he fed Monkey lusus’s green blooded grub little bits of sandwich. Elk father showed the other lusii a hat that he had bought at the Earth airport which had a picture of florida on the front and had a space on either side for a beverage complete with a straw for each that led down to Elk Father’s mouth. The lusii all agreed that the hat was both fashionable and extremely useful, while the humans wisely chose not to comment. 

Laura and Thomas came later, toeing off their shoes at the door and apologizing for being late. Jukilo gave them both a hug and the married pair sat down, their hands linked. Chloe came in a bit later with her son Dexter, who immediately went off to greet Minnie and Lily. Max was absorbed into the little group and the gaggle of children ran circles around the table in a game of tag.

Emmet turned to Lolida. “Hey honey do you think you can keep the young ones occupied?”

Lolida snorted, rolling her eyes at her father “Um, no?”

“Please?” Emmet whispered “I would owe you one!”

Lolida sighed and got up from the couch, brushing off her dress. “Hey nerds!” She addressed the children, four young trolls and humans turning to look at her. Lolida grinned, wiggling her eyebrows “Wanna learn about voodoo?”

The children threw up their fists, hooping with triumphant joy as they followed Lolida out of the room.

The parents and lusii turned to Emmet.

Emmet turned red-faced, sweating slightly. “I’m sure it’s fine.” He said mostly to convince himself, picking up his tea cup and taking a sip.

Jukilo clapped his hands, getting the attention of the group. They had run out of chairs a while ago so Chloe was sitting on his lap. Jukilo fixed them with a serious stare, the effect somewhat ruined by Chloe eating a sandwich while sitting in his lap “I called you all here today for a very important endeavor.” He nodded slightly “In order to help the grub relocation plan we’re going to need a book how to rear grubs that can compete with Scarlet’s manual.”

He motioned towards Ben and Emmet “Emmet, Ben and-” Jukilo shook Chloe a bit where she sat on her lap, making her giggle “And my dear Chloe are all humans who have experience parenting troll children.” 

Jukilo nodded to the lusii “Combine that with the expertise of some of Alternia’s most experienced lusii and we have the recipe for a book on troll rearing that can really inform the human masses.”

Laura waved a bit at the group. “Me and my husband Thomas are going to be re-canvasing the households that have already adopted trolls, we’ll get a baseline from them from before our manual comes out and then after the manual comes out.” She linked hands with her husband and the two of them shared a loving look “We’re also going to be adopting a grub of our own once the data sets are complete.”

“Hwa! Hwa!” The monkey lusus congratulated them, patting their backs with three or so hands.

Laura giggled and smiled at the monkey lusus, excited at the prospect. “I’m also hoping that we can act as a sort of community for humans raising trolls, lusii raising trolls or humans, or even just human parents with kids who want to learn how to accommodate trolls better.”

Jukilo put a hand to his own chest. “I also happen to be the stepfather of a troll and with how our cultures are mingling I doubt that I will be the last troll to find themselves in a human type family structure with another troll. I will add whatever experience I can give on that front.”

Emmet raised his hand meekly “Isn’t um… Miss Laquda, Sharon’s wife a step-mother now as well?”   
  
  


 

Alimah was a freshman in college. She sat in the third row of her lecture hall, twirling a pencil boredly in one hand as her xeno-biology teacher lectured the class on Alternia.

“Hi!” The teacher waved to the class. “I’m professor Connie Stevens here at Florida state! We’re going to be teaching you about Alternia!” She started up the projector, blue light shining across the white projection sheet on stage. “First we’ll be starting with trolls! The first caste below the empress is the v-”

Something extremely large and meaty burst their way through the projection screen. An extremely large Violet blood tore through the plastic with a roar, their frills flaring, a tiny lacy apron tied around the bulking behemoth’s waist. The professor screamed and jumped to the other side of their podium.

Laquda growled the pupil in her one good eye narrowing to a slit. “ALIMAH KAKKAR!”

Alimah waved at her step mom. “Hey Laquda.”

Laquda’s head whipped around to fix her gaze on Alimah. The troll threw something through the classroom, the projectile slamming into Alimah’s neighbor with enough force to topple them from their seat. “YOU FORGOT YOUR LUNCH!” Laquda bellowed. “FORGOT!!! LUNCH!!!” and with that the bulky monstrosity of a troll left the way she came, barreling through the broken projection screen.

Alimah picked up the bundle from where it was sitting on her groaning classmate’s chest where he laid defeated on the floor. Alimah undid the knot on the adorable bento package, patterned with little multi-colored fish. “Oh neat.” Alimah remarked, completely unfazed as if this sort of shit happened to her every day “apple slices.”   
  
  


 

Jukilo shook his head, grimacing at the thought of his older sister “...No we will not be using any of Laquda’s advice on anything ever.”

Ben shrugged “So what are we calling this battalion?”

Jukilo held up a hand “I was thinking -The council of dads!”

Chloe snorted “Shouldn’t it be the council of parents? We have women here too you know”

Crocodile dad passed her a note. The note read “I have found that to dad does not depend on what is in one’s pants or underneath their fur, but what resides in their heart”

Chloe gave him a look. “That’s not… that’s not how this works.” She suddenly came to an epiphany “You don’t actually know what the word means do you?”

Crocodile dad snorted at her. No he did not but he wasn’t going to go about admitting it. 

The monkey lusus rocked their head back and forth, mulling the idea over before shrugging and indicating that they agreed with crocodile dad. In the end the vote between calling “the council of dads” and “The council of parents” was decided by the lusii, who apparently just liked the word better.

The raptor lusus obtained a crayon from somewhere and wrote out their reasoning on a piece of paper. “CAN SPEL DAD. NOT SPEL PAREEND. MUCH LONG. VERY EW.”

Chloe sighed and rolled her eyes but went with it anyways. “As long as we’re deciding here and now that females can always join the council of dads then I’m in.”

Alternians never were ones for gender roles so none of the lusii really understood why that would have been a problem in the first place.

Ben nodded thoughtfully “...We should get uniforms.”

Thomas snorted “Dad uniforms? What would that even be?” He rolled his eyes “Go full on 1950s with a fedora and a pipe?” he added sarcastically. Laura rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the ribs.

Crocodile dad grinned at him from across the table.

Emmet began to sweat. “What? No!”   
  


 

 

One trip to party city later, all members of the newly made council of dads were all wearing cheap white fedoras, “Smoking” novelty pipes that blew bubbles out the ends.

“You know.” Chloe adjusted her white fedora and blew another bubble from the pipe. “I make this look good.”

Elk father replaced his beer cozy hat with the fedora, blowing a steady stream of bubbles from his bubble pipe.

“We’re like the red hat society.” Laura snorted “But for parenthood!”

Thomas looked at his own hat “Why the white?”

Crocodile dad pointed at his white furred belly, then to the other white lusii.

“Oh!” Thomas nodded “Gotcha. So the white is already symbolic to lusushood with trolls, so it would make sense to wear a white article of clothing to associate yourself with it.”

Emmet sighed ”But do we need the bubble pipes?”

Ben turned to look at him, his pipe dangling from his mouth, lazy bubbles floating out  “Y’all can pry this fuckin bubble pipe from my cold, dead hands.”

“It’s decided then.” Jukilo said, who had always a been a bit afraid of Ben after the man once casually picked him up and set him to the side “We’re keeping the pipes.”   
  
  


 

When Crocodile got home, after he put his daughter Minnie to bed, he put his new hat and pipe on the dresser. The laptop that Jukilo had bought him pinged with a new email.   
  


 

 

Violet woke up to a searing pain in her left eye. She screamed, pressing her hand against her eye and writhing in pain. Boris threw open the door to her room “Violet?” He hurriedly put down the tray of eggs benedict and went to her side “Violet are you ok?

Violet had her hand pressed to her left eye. Her eye burned and throbbed “It hurts! It hurts!”

“Let me see sweetheart, let me see.” Boris gently pried her hand away from her eye.

Violet groaned, her left eye fluttering open for Boris to inspect. The pain pounding through her skull like a hammer.

Boris peered into Violet’s eye socket and-

There in Violet’s left eye, two pupils stared back at Boris, constricting in the light, Violet’s vision of him doubling.

“Boris?” Violet whispered, her voice hoarse and scratchy “What’s happening to me?”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY!!!! Holy CRUD a lot of stuff happened in that chapter! Oh my gosh!
> 
> What do you think of the new lusii? Of Crocodile dad meeting Elk father? Lolida and Emmet? The council of dads? SCARLET BEING TERRIBLE? WHAT'S HAPPENING TO VIOLET???
> 
> Comment!!! Tell me what you think and what questions you have! I always love seeing people's reactions!!!


	4. Fracture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scarlet finds out about Violet's new abilities. The tension between Boris and Scarlet comes to a head. Violet bites off more than she can chew. Jukilo and Dexter just want to help. Sharon puts things in motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special shout out to my wonderful co-writer cyanideoreos who comes up with the BEST/WORST things to happen to people. She's amazing. 
> 
> tw warning for panic attacks, mild body horror and mild blood!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Scarlet stalked down the hall of her building, the nail technicians and hair stylists ducked into doorways, quickly putting out cigarettes and stowing phones. They scattered at the sound of Scarlet’s sharp heels on the marble floors of the building. Like rabbits fleeing from the hunter.

Scarlet however, with her face slightly flushed, her hair mussed and sweaty and walking in such a way that would let a trained observer know EXACTLY what she did to Violet’s fencing instructor on that padded gym room mat, was a sated beast.

Scarlet hummed to herself as she punched in the executive code for her private elevator, enjoying the slight ache in her shoulders. Her thoughts slightly clouded in a pleasant hazy sort of way. She thought vaguely that she should get thicker padding for the gym room floor.

She sauntered into the elevator, watching her own smug smile reflected back to her as the mirrored doors closed. She touched up her lipstick, craning her neck from one side to the other to admire the bruises slowly blooming across her neck and thinking about the scratches her long nails had left across his shoulder blades.

She hummed to herself. He wasn’t what she wanted, but he was pretty enough to feed her own sense of vanity, and angry enough to be interesting.

... he’ll do for now.

At least until she can wear down Jukilo.

She liked toying with the Alternian, she liked pushing his buttons just _so_ in order to watch him squirm, watch his anger and frustration bubble to the surface with a chittering growl. It was only a matter of time before she got _all_ of him, and well... The best part of having a toy was the day you were done with it, when you smash it into a wall, tear it to pieces and get a new one.

But the fencing instructor will do for the moment. He seemed more durable than some of Scarlet’s past toys, and she was going to enjoy wearing him down little-by-little, chipping away at him until he broke.

The mirrored elevator doors opened, bringing Scarlet back from her revelry. She dropped her purse on the large leather couch in her front room, under the watchful eye of her own portrait hanging over the mantelpiece. Scarlet smiled up at the painting, of herself lounging across the frame, cushioned by animal furs, wearing a crimson evening gown with a dramatic plunging neckline and slit that went all the way up her leg, her neck and wrists crowded with large diamonds, her eyes piercing and calculating, looking out at the world with a knowing smirk.

Scarlet stretched her arms over her head, cracking her back. “Boris?” She called out into the apartment, picking up her cell phone and her wallet from her purse. “Did Violet tell you that she won against her fencing instructor? She’s so talented you should have seen her!” Scarlet giggled slightly at the idea that she too had “won” against Violet’s fencing instructor “I also happen to be in a fantastic mood.” She began scrolling through the contacts on her phone “How about we order sushi to celebrate?”

Scarlet wandered further into the apartment, the phone to her ear, listening to the dial tone before it began to ring. Why weren’t Scarlet and Boris answering? Did he take her out to the park again? She hated it when he exposed her to the unwashed masses her daughter is going to get lice one day from one of those spit-sticky cretins.

She pushed open Violet’s bedroom door with her hip “Violet? My darling, I’m ordering Japanese, do you want Tempura again-”

Scarlet stopped breathing, a scream caught in her throat before it could escape, her eyes wide as the phone fell from her hands.

“This is Naoe, five-star contemporary japanese cuisine, how can I-” before the phone fell to the hardwood floor, the screen cracking before going dark.

Violet was sitting up in bed, Boris was kneeling on the floor in front of her, pressing an icepack to her face, the little girl had turned to Scarlet when she had walked into the room. Scarlet paused at the scene desperately looking for any possible injury on her daughter before taking a closer look at her rapidly blinking eyes, and that was the thing. Violets right eye, while watering, was normal, but in the left eye-

In Violet’s left eye two large black pupils contracted in the light as trails of blotchy blue tears streaked down the little girl’s cheeks.

Scarlet staggered into the room, falling to her knees in front of Violet, Boris gingerly moving to the side to let her have room.

“Violet-” Scarlet put her hands ever so carefully on each of Violet’s cheeks. Tears were welling up in Scarlet’s eyes “What happened to you?”

A new round of tears bubbled up in Violet’s eyes. She leaned into her mother’s hands “I don’t- I’m sorry- It hurts so much!”

“Shhh” Scarlet shooshed her daughter, tears falling from her eyes “It’s ok! It’s ok! Calm down, look at me-”

Violet did as she was told, looking across at her mother. Scarlet gave her daughter a determined stare, even as tears rolled down her cheeks, threading her fingers through the little girl’s hair. “You’re stronger than this Violet, find that pain and focus on it, raise yourself above it, steel yourself, come on take a deep breath.”

Violet nodded jerkily, her little brow furrowing with concentration. She stared back at her mother, using the pain to clear her mind.

Scarlet swallowed, nodding back to her. “Good girl.” She was breathing heavily, tear tracks still evident on her face. “I’ll take care of this.” She tugged Violet forward to give her a kiss on the forehead. “Mommy will take care of this, Mommy will take care of you...”

Scarlet reached back for her phone, not taking her eyes off her daughter. She backed out of the room, her mouth set into a hard line. “Mommy will take care of this!” She backed out of the room, her heels squeaking on the hardwood floor as she ran down the hall. “Mommy just needs to make a phone call!”

Boris didn’t like the sound of that. He rose from his spot on the floor, following after her. “Miss! Miss wait!”

Violet was left alone in her room, watching the empty doorway where the both of them had left.   
  


 

Scarlet ran to her office, pulling out her phone only to see that the screen was badly cracked and unresponsive to any of the buttons she pressed. She snarled “Piece of SHIT!” with a yell she threw the phone as hard as she could, the little electronic smashing into a decorative mirror with a harsh CRACK some tiny pieces of glass raining down onto the hardwood floors.

Boris came into the room, giving a worried look to the already smashed mirror. “Miss-”

Scarlet was too busy rifling through the room to notice Boris come in, pulling out desk drawers, flipping them upside-down as she tore through her office. “Phone, phone, phone I need a phone-”

Boris approached her slowly, like an animal control officer with a net cornering a rabid raccoon. “Miss.”

Scarlet laughed with triumph, finding a small blackberry phone, she reached down to the phone under the smashed mirror, pulling out the sim card with a ruthless efficiency and stuffing it into the older phone. She scrolled through her contacts. “Not now Boris I need to find a surgeon!”

Boris’s eyes widened with horror “A surgeon?”

Scarlet’s eyes widened “Ahah! There’s an ocular specialist in Miami now! Do they do trolls?-”

Boris put his hands over Scarlet’s phone. “Miss please don’t! She doesn’t need a surgeon!”

Scarlet yanked herself violently away from him, her hair in her face and her eyes wild with rage “HOW DARE YOU PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME!”

Boris put his hands up placatingly, away from her. “Miss please listen-”

Scarlet pointed an accusing finger at him. “No YOU listen!” She shook her head “People are going to look at her and think she’s a fucking freak!”

Boris had worked for Scarlet for years. For better or worse he was the one person who knew Scarlet better than anyone else on the planet. He had stood next to her for fifteen years, back when the woman had just been starting out as a model. There was a reason that he had been able to endure while all of Scarlet’s other employees usually only lasted a month of two, crying hysterically as Scarlet watched them leave with a smile on her face. Another toy smashed to pieces. That was because he knew what Scarlet really was...

Boris shook his head slowly “You don’t know that, Scarlet please-”

“I don’t know that? I DON’T KNOW THAT?” Scarlet pointed at her own eyes, at their startling shade of red “YOU THINK I FUCKING DON’T KNOW THAT?” Scarlet pointed at her chest “I WAS A FUCKING FREAK FOR MOST OF MY CHILDHOOD!” Scarlet pointed out of the office door towards Violet’s room, more tears were running down her face now “AND SHE’S ALREADY SO SMART! SO BEAUTIFUL! SO PERFECT! I’M NOT GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN TO HER TOO!”

Deep down, Boris knew that Scarlet was just a lonely spoiled brat of a child. Afraid but not able to admit it, desperate for the entire world’s approval. She had convinced herself over the years that the fact that she was alone wasn’t due to her own shortcomings, but because of an innate superiority she had over all other people. A queen that ruled alone. She took her anger of not being accepted out on others, a bullied angry child burning ants on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass. Enjoying using her power against others because, he knew, somewhere in her past, someone else had used their power against her. She craved attention and validation like air and would go to extreme lengths to get it.

She didn’t even need a manservant. Not since the both of them had moved to Calimistrum tower.

The building had its own cleaning staff, its own kitchen full of cooks. She had her penthouse custom made with a servant’s room for him anyways. He was calculated into the design of this building like the concrete foundation it sat on.

She just wanted someone to turn to after she made a clever business move, after her book hit number one on the best seller’s charts, after a subtle act of cruelty to one of her many toys, looking for him to be in on the joke.

An older man to tell her that yes, she IS clever, that she IS beautiful, that she IS strong and worthwhile.

And Boris had stayed because despite everything, despite how cruel and vindictive Scarlet was, he was a father and a grandfather, and he knew a troubled child when he saw one.

He kept all that in mind as he chose his next words.

Boris spoke calmly, slowly, matching Scarlet’s rage with temperate words. “You used what was given to you as a tool, you worked through it, you made people find the beauty in it. You did that. You proved them all wrong didn’t you? Showed them all how beautiful being a little different could be.”

Scarlet nodded jerkily. “I did....” She whispered, small and vulnerable, her voice wispy and cracking slightly, tears still on her face. “...I proved them all wrong.”

He swallowed, breathing deeply. The animal control worker trying to push Scarlet into the proverbial cat carrier “She’s still beautiful, she’s still your beautiful little daughter... but we have other, more important, problems-”

Scarlet was clutching onto the blackberry like a lifeline, looking up at Boris with wide teary eyes, panicked and cornered, afraid and ready to bite “What do you MEAN we have more IMPORTANT PROBLEMS?”

Boris took a deep breath, holding out his hands in a placating manner. Trying to figure out how best to approach this. “Now I don’t want to alarm you-

Scarlet snarled, her teeth bared, tears continuing to roll down her face “TELL ME RIGHT THE FUCK NOW BORIS! I SWEAR TO GOD!”

Boris swallowed. A miscalculation on his part on how well she would react to him trying to approach this slowly. Directly it is then. “....She says she can hear other people’s thoughts…”

Scarlet was shocked still for a moment. A small burst of hysterical laughter bubbling through her mouth. She scrambled to the desk, knocking papers off haphazardly before she found a copy of her own grub-rearing manual. She flipped to the section of possible mutations.

There was a small smile on Scarlet’s face, awe and fear mingling in her red eyes. “Oh she’s still my perfect little girl.” Scarlet whispered, her blonde hair falling around her as she hunched over the book “She’ll do so well, she’ll do so well, it’s just one thing to take care of and she’ll crush them! She’ll crush this entire goddamn world!”

Boris tried to follow the stream of half-coherent mumblings from Scarlet. “Miss? Miss she needs help controlling this. I contacted an expert and-”

Scarlet’s face was hidden in the falling curtain of her blonde hair so Boris couldn’t see her expression, but he saw the way she stiffened, the way her nails scratched the cardboard cover of the book in her hands. Her voice was remarkably even, too even, too calm, as she spoke. “You did what?”

Boris leaned down slightly, trying to get a look of her face. “I contacted an expert, we’ll need someone who knows best about-”

Scarlet’s head whipped up, pinning Boris with a poisonous look. “I’M HER MOTHER!” She shrieked, putting a hand to her chest “I KNOW WHAT’S BEST!” her nostrils flared as she breathed, a snarl on her face. “WHO DID YOU CONTACT?”

Boris put up his hands “T-the crocodile lusus! The one with the blog!”

Scarlet scoffed “You mean the one that knows Jukilo and his group! The scum trying to dig their heels into my grub rearing market!” Her hands balled into fists. “HOW FUCKING STUPID CAN YOU BE?” She threw up her hands “TELLING ALL OUR SECRETS TO THE ENEMY!”

Boris shook his head “They’re not the enemy Scarlet, they are the help we need for Violet! She will need help to-”

“THEY WILL TAKE HER AWAY BORIS!” She yelled. “THEY WILL TAKE HER AWAY AND THEN EVERYTHING I HAVE WORKED FOR WILL BE FOR NOTHING!”

Scarlet was hunched over her desk, her lips pulled into a harsh line, her hair wild in her face, firmly not looking at Boris. Her eyes were darting all over the room her hands clenching and unclenching in front of her. She was as worked up as he had ever seen her before but he had weathered her tantrums in the past and he would get through to her.

Scarlet took a deep breath and an icy calm slammed down over her.

“Get out.”

Boris looked at her, his eyes wide. “...what?”

Scarlet’s lower lip trembled. “You went behind my back Boris, you told the worst possible people that she was going through this, that I….”

Scarlet swallowed “That I can’t…” She shook her head. “You know how much is riding on this. I can’t have someone around who’ll betray my confidence” Her voice got impossibly smaller. She seemed to shrink in on herself “She’s all I’m ever going to have. So please….go…”

“Miss.” Boris breathed, unsure of how to proceed.

Scarlet wiped her face, straightening her shoulders. “You’ll get your full severance check. There’s a property I own on the west side where you can stay until you find something else. I’ll tell the driver to take you there. Your things will be overnighted to you.”

Boris shook his head “Miss you can’t just-”

Scarlet turned to look at him then, a cold look in her eyes, her lips were an impassive line. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be Boris.” She tapped her phone, the knife-sharp click of her nails against the plastic. “Security is always just a call away.”

Boris shuddered out a breath, his eyes wide and disbelieving.

“Come on...” Scarlet whispered almost kindly, something unreadable in her eyes, her mouth pinched. “I’ll help you pack a bag.”  
  


 

Scarlet walked Boris to the elevator, his bag in his hands, a picture of Violet smiling through the split in the bag before Scarlet pulled the zipper like the pull on a body bag, hiding the little girl’s smile and burying whatever life it was that Boris had here with the two of them.

“Please.” Boris swallowed, tears welling up in his eyes. “Let me say goodbye to her.”

Scarlet stared at him, her mouth set in a harsh line, holding either side of the elevator doors. She cocked her head slowly, her eyes hard. “No.”

Boris looked at her, his jaw clenching. “Don’t take her eye. You don’t need to Scarlet. She’s still beautiful.”

Scarlet reached into the elevator, pressing the ground floor button. “We all make sacrifices to keep what is important to us Boris.” She whispered, somewhere between bored and icy calculation.

He watched in horror as the elevator doors closed.

Scarlet stared back at him, a determined look in her eyes “If that just so happens to be an eye...then so be it.”

The elevator doors closed on Boris’s horrified face, and with that-

-he was gone.

Scarlet stood at the elevator doors, listening to the elevator descend. When it seemed he was out of earshot Scarlet curled in on herself, bending like she took a punch to the gut, an anguished cry coming from her, more tears running down her face despite herself. She breathed heavily, her shoulders shuddering, a deep wave of nausea going through her.

“Momma?”

Scarlet righted herself, swallowing a sob, wiping the tears from her face with the back of a hand. She straightened her skirt before turning to her daughter. She forced a smile. “What is it my darling?”

Violet stood at the entrance of her bedroom, peering out into the hall from behind the frame of her door. “...Where is mister Boris going?”

A cold shock of fear ran down Scarlet’s spine. She smiled benevolently, clasping her hands in front of her. “Well he does so much for us here, I thought a vacation was in order.”

Violet frowned.

Her mom was lying.

Scarlet reached out for her daughter, a small tired smile on her face “Come on now, come over here, let’s see how you’re doing…”

Violet walked slowly down the hallway, one tiny grey hand still holding an icepack to her eye.

Scarlet swallowed, looking down at her little daughter with something like fear, fondness and pity. “Oh you poor thing, is it still hurting?”

Violet nodded grimly, holding up her arms.

Scarlet acquiesced, picking the little girl up. “Oh you’re getting so tall I won’t be able to do this for much longer.” She brushed some hair out of Violet’s face. “Let me see?”

Violet peeled back the icepack, the two pupils looking up at her mother through her left eye.

Scarlet sighed. “Poor thing.” She replaced the icepack. “Though I suppose growing an entirely new pupil wouldn’t feel nice would it?” She bounced slightly, rubbing Violet’s back. She pulled out the blackberry and sent off a text “There...that’s an appointment with the doctor.”

Scarlet leaned down to place a kiss on Violet’s temple. “There...Mommy is going to take care of you.”

Scarlet rocked her daughter back and forth. “.....mommy is going to take good care of you…”  
  


 

Crocodile dad had only ever raised one psychic child. Ariday had always loved to paint and had been a generally happy child. Crocodile dad remembers their fingers stained with paint made from local plants (Crocodile dad could never stomach the blood-based paint sometimes sold in wiggler’s painting kits) as they sang little nonsense songs to themselves and painted on the walls of their den.

It hadn’t been much of a problem at first, with just the two of them he didn’t mind if Ariday could hear his thoughts, even if that meant they always knew where the cookies were hidden in the cupboard.

“Dad!” Ariday had pulled Crocodile dad along, one tiny hand wrapped around one of Crocodile dad’s long talons. They pushed back their long hair flecked with white paint. Showing a new scene on the wall, waters swirling under a canopy of trees, little fish flicking through the waves. They turned to him then, smiling wide and gap-toothed “You were thinking of going fishing! So I painted fish!”

Crocodile dad had simply smiled at them, giving the child a loving nuzzle and moving to braid their long hair as the child continued to paint their little scene on the wall, their tongue peeking out of their lips with concentration.

One day through, Crocodile dad had found them in their nest, writhing with their hands over their little pointed ears. “Dad!” Ariday had sobbed, tears running down their little chubby cheeks. “They’re so loud! And they think so many thoughts at the same time!”

Crocodile dad peeked outside and sure enough, the troupe of Monkey lusii were swinging in the branches outside Crocodile dad’s cave. There had been a certain sort of uneasy peace between the troupe and Crocodile dad after the reptile became a lusus, and it seems that the troupe had grown a bit too comfortable, helping themselves to the redfruit in the trees above his cave. They were chattering amongst themselves in a thousand different conversations that Crocodile dad knew from experience, always went nowhere. Monkey lusii had a habit of starting several conversations at the same time and finishing none of them, sometimes starting them up again months later like nothing happened. A good portion of the troupe had taken in grubs, a couple lusii were gingerly helping some of the newly pupated trolls learn to walk on the thick boughs of the trees.

Crocodile dad roared at them, slamming his tail into the thick trunk of the tree, the shockwave jostling the tree’s inhabitants roughly, the monkey lusii shrieking and scattering across the jungle.

Ariday had only worsened after that though, and as much as Crocodile dad loved them he didn’t know how to help. He inquired about the affliction to several lusii and eventually found a small fennec fox like lusus living where the swamp turned to purple grass prairie that had an older psychic child. They agreed to have the two children meet and see if there were any tips the older child could pass along.

The little fennec fox trotted into Crocodile dad’s home, their many bushy tails flicking with anticipation. They were followed by a troll child who was perhaps a year or two from conscription, wearing a long button-up dress, their hair in two long braids and a large broad-brimmed hat on their head woven from the long purple grasses of the prairie. She had a quiet, extremely observant air to her. She had given Crocodile dad a couple of homemade canned goods as an introduction, telling him her name was Looann. He decided he liked her.

They had sat next to Ariday where the younger troll was lying miserable in her and Crocodile dad’s nest. She passed the other troll one of her canned goods and a spoon. “Sounds loud uh?”

Ariday nodded, spooning whatever it was into her mouth. “Uh huh.”

The other girl nodded sagely, her eyes wide an owlish. “I can teach ya a few things, help quiet em.”

Ariday nodded fervently, tears running down their cheeks. “Please!”

Looann child winced down at Ariday. “You ain’t doing so good are you?”

Ariday shook their head.

Looann sighed. “I can help it now in the short run, but it involves me reachin’ inside for a bit. I promise not to do nothin bad while I’m there. You ok with that?”

Ariday thought for a long moment before eventually nodding.

Looann breathed deeply. She closed her eyes, putting a hand on either side of Airday’s little head. Ariday gasped, their eyes rolling back and Crocodile almost tore the two children apart before Ariday’s eyes focused once more.

“H-how did you do that?” Ariday blinked fast, looking up at the older child with awe.

Looann shrugged. “Minds are like string. Sometimes people have smooth minds, sometimes their all knotted and tangled. You can find the right string, pull it out and undo the snarls, or you can loop them up, bury them in their own thoughts.”

Ariday’s eyes took on a steely glimmer as they listened to the other child talk. “Teach me.”

They spent weeks together. Looann knitting placidly and talking in low tones as Ariday sat nearby, listening and meditating.

“Ya can see the color of it.” Looann explained, starting another row of stitches in the sweater she was making. “The feel and the texture of a thought, not just the words. When you can identify it you can push it, change their mood or bring them to another line of thinking, when you get good enough, you can grind it to a halt or you can even put something there you made yourself.” Looann gave the other child a meaningful look. “It’s up to you how you use this, you can do a lot of good for people if you help untangle someone’s knots, help smooth down their hurt.” She sighed and continued to knit. “But where we’re going I doubt they’re gonna want you to do nothing nice with it.”

Ariday’s brow furrowed “What do you mean?”

Looann pointed up “Higher ups when you’re conscripted. They don’t care about being nice or helpin’ they like it when you use it to hurt.”

Ariday thought for a moment. “Well… they will be my commanding officers. Isn’t it better to do what they say? It’s not like I can’t tell them about it”

Looann scoffed. “You’re just chicken lusus shit.” She shrugged “But that’s your right.” She pinned Ariday with a look. “From what I see. They don’t gotta know about, what they don’t gotta know about.”

Eventually though, Looann was sent off to be conscripted, her fennec fox Lusus cooing and chirping sadly as she walked towards the transport ship, her hair neatly braided over a crisp Alternian fleet uniform.

Ariday then went on to serve as a mentor for other psychic children before they too were conscripted. They did tell their superior officer of their talents though, and ascended the ranks of the Alternian fleet quickly, soon becoming lead interrogator and information agent of the Condescension’s regime. Last Crocodile dad had heard of them they were working with General Ozainu and his war dog gathering intelligence on conquered planets.

The other lusii had congratulated them on Ariday’s status and rank but Crocodile dad had never quite known how to feel about the whole thing. Ariday’s letters home over time began to seem colder and colder, detatched and calculated, growing shorter and more infrequent before they completely petered out.

He never knew what happened to them in the end.

 

 

 

Crocodile dad had re-read the email the Boris human had sent him. He turned the computer screen towards Jukilo and Sharon, the pair of them standing with their arms crossed, a look of grim realization on their faces.

Sharon ran a fingernail over her bottom lip, deep in thought. “So this is why the Jade was so adamant that she receive THIS grub, Scarlet was arranging to have a mind reader.”

Jukilo’s lips thinned to a harsh line. “You wouldn’t even be able to tell if a grub would become a psychic until they pupate.”

Sharon huffed out a breath. “Either way I don’t like her having access to a psychic.”

Jukilo shook his head. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I don’t like it either, but I know that the child is probably going through a lot right now. From what I hear it isn’t a very fun experience for a child to become discover their abilities. Also psychics can be especially dangerous if they aren’t properly trained to respect other’s minds. Who knows what kind of damage she’s committing at this very moment.”

Crocodile dad opened a word document to type out his own response. “WE NEED ANOTHER MIND READER TO SPEAK WITH HER, HELP HER SORT OUT HER ABILITIES.”

Sharon cocked her head. “Might give us a way in too.”

Jukilo sighed. “Look Scarlet may be the enemy at the moment, but our first priority is ensuring the well being of the child.”

Sharon looked affronted. “Well of course.” She threw up a hand, raising her eyebrows. “Getting her away from Scarlet is a part of ensuring that well-being!”

Jukilo nodded “That and we need to make sure Violet’s not out tearing minds apart on her mother’s orders.”

Crocodile dad sighed. “That too.” He typed out.

Jukilo bit his lip. “...Dexter is the only psychic we have currently in the on earth community. Lolida has mild chucklevoodoos but nothing on the scale of-” He shook his head “-Nothing like Dexter but I don’t want-”

“You don’t want him to be exposed too much to _her”_ Sharon finished for him. Neither of them had to clarify which her they were talking about.

Jukilo breathed out a shaky sigh “I can’t imagine subjecting a child to that witch.”

Sharon bit the arm of her glasses. “Ask him if he wants to, IF he says yes, stay with him as an escort.”

Jukilo let out a long breath “Too be quite honest I don’t want to be exposed to too much of her either…”

Sharon gave him a pat on the shoulder “I know. I would send Laquda or Ben with you if it wouldn’t make her suspicious, but so far you’re the only one she lets herself have contact with. I don’t like it…” She gave Jukilo a grim and knowing look “...but it’s for Violet. Also if what we suspect is happening in that penthouse if happening then this might be our only chance to get her away from her mother to talk about it.”

Jukilo nodded. “...I’ll talk to him about it.”

Sharon gave him a slight squeeze on the upper arm. “Talk to him about it Jukilo.” Sharon shrugged on her coat. “Meanwhile…” She adjusted her scarf and put on her sunglasses “I have a call to make.”

Jukilo’s brows furrowed. “A meeting? With who?”

Sharon smiled, dangerous like the glint of a dagger in the light. “Oh...just a meeting with someone over a certain development.”

Jukilo sighed. “Usually asking questions like the ones I just proffered are an invitation to elaborate further on what they are talking about. You are being purposefully vague, unclear and-”

Sharon put a gentle finger to his lips to stop him, sending him a poisonously sweet smile his direction. “Plausible deniability, it’s best for you not to know.” She swayed out of the room then, slinking out the door and into the night, like a panther on the hunt.

Jukilo watched her go, a grimace on his face. “...I hate it when she does that.”

Crocodile dad shrugged, patting Jukilo on the top of the head and going off the check on Minnie. Jukilo could hear Minnie and Lily where they sat at Crocodile dad’s kitchen counter, SUPPOSEDLY doing homework, but really just writing notes on each other’s pages and giggling about it.

Crocodile dad rolled his eyes, tapping his daughter’s textbook to get her attention back on it.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Minnie snorted, looking back to her book “Where were we?”

Lily kicked her under the table and both girls were sent back into a giggling playful feud.

Crocodile dad sighed, going to the fridge to start dinner.

Jukilo smiled fondly at his little sister, giving Minnie a playful ruffle of her pigtails as he went by. Minnie giggling and batting his hand away. Jukilo looked back at the pair of them fondly before exiting through the front door and heading home.  


 

 

Jukilo toed off his work shoes as he walked into the front door of his home. He stretched out his toes in the carpet, glad to be free of the human dress footwear, it always seemed that human footwear companies forgot to calculate the possibility of having talons on one’s feet.

He could see why...but it was annoying nonetheless.

Dexter was at the kitchen table, focusing on a school book, scritching on a notebook besides him.

Jukilo loosened his tie, giving Dexter a look. “Why aren’t you studying with your friends tonight?”

Dexter didn’t look up from his book. “I love Lily and Minnie a lot, they’re my best friends in the world but…” He bit his lip and scratched out a problem. “they’re both terrible hooligans and we have a test in two days.”

Jukilo shrugged. That’s fair.

Chloe leaned out of the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. She had a warm smile on her face and a smudge of marinara sauce on her cheek. “Hey babe!” She was wearing a dress patterned with tiny little orange and blue cats, her curly hair tied up and out of the way with a teal handkerchief. “I’m making moussaka tonight!”

Jukilo smiled back at her, a purr in his throat as he took off his tie. The sight of Chloe never failed to elicit a deep wave of fondness through him. He crossed the threshold between them and wrapped an arm around her waist. He gave her a kiss before licking the marinara off her cheek, making Chloe squeal and giggle, before moving down to nibble at where her neck met her shoulder.

Dexter threw a pencil at the pair of them. “NO!”

Jukilo looked up to give the child a flat look. Chloe giggled, her face flushed sightly.

Dexter rolled his eyes, poised with another pencil. “Go be gross somewhere else! I’m trying to do math homework and I can’t concentrate with you two thinking lovey mushy stuff at each other!”

Chloe pulled back, her hand to her chest with a fake scandalized gasp. She turned to Jukilo. “Were YOU thinking lovey mushy stuff at ME?”

Jukilo sighed, looking dramatically off into the distance as if this were a hard revelation, before looking down and away, one hand balled into a righteous fist. “I was...I was…”

Dexter’s mouth flattened into a hard line. “STOP. AT LEAST UNTIL I’M DONE WITH THIS HOMEWORK!”

Chloe giggled and rolled her eyes. “Alright! Alright!” She gave Jukilo one last peck before leaning back. “I have to get back to cooking, but would you mind helping Dexter with his math homework so we can think lovey mushy stuff at each other again?”

Jukilo gave her a peck back before letting her go. “Sure thing.”

She smacked him playfully on the chest before turning back to the kitchen to check on what she was cooking. “Go get em’ tiger!”

Dexter sat across from the troll child. Dexter was looking down at the book, his grey tongue peaking out slightly as he tried to solve another problem.

Jukilo didn’t quite know how to broach the subject. He-

Dexter groaned, running a hand down his face. “Oh no not another talk!” He looked at Jukilo miserably, pillowing his cheek with his textbook. “I can’t stand another Quadrants talk or another Birds and the bees talk!”

Jukilo was a tad affronted. He had put a lot of work into those powerpoint presentations “Excuse me my talks are necessary, important and informative!”

Dexter pinched the bridge of his nose. “I DON’T WANT TO LOOK AT ANY MORE DIAGRAMS!”

Jukilo scoffed “My diagrams are also fantastic, you’re lucky you have an adult troll to explain this, MY father was an entirely different species I had to wait learn from government informational packets that came in the mail!” Jukilo sighed “Besides it’s not that kind of-”

Dexter’s eyes narrowed at him. “....wait it’s not that kind of talk….” He seemed to concentrate for a moment. “You….want me to help someone?” his eyes widened “Someone like me!”

Jukilo nodded. “Yes but it’s-”

“But you’re afraid.” Dexter continued. “Afraid for me and her….What are you afraid of?”

Jukilo rolled his eyes “Will you just let me t-”

Dexter’s eyes widened “Really? Her mom is THAT bad?”

Jukilo sighed, giving the child a critical look. “You know, when you do your mind reader thing it makes having a conversation with you extremely difficult.”

Dexter grinned slyly. “I thought I was doing a service by helping you to talk less!”

Jukilo snorted, batting Dexter slightly upside the head, making the child giggle “Don’t sass me child.”

Jukilo grinned “Wouldn’t dream of it!”

Jukilo huffed out a laugh before his eyes turned serious again. “I just want you to know what you’re getting into, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

Dexter nodded seriously. “I know but…” He bit his bottom lip “If I can help someone else like me…” He shrugged “Then I want to do it.”

Jukilo gave him a half-smile. His human raised a kind kid. “We’ll talk to your mother about it over dinner, I just wanted to ask you about it first.”

Dexter nodded. “Thanks.” He shrugged slightly. “On another less serious note, do you know anything about algebra?”

Jukilo leaned over to look at the paper “Is that what humans call it?” He shrugged “On Alternia it was letter replacement procedural mathematics.”

Dexter sighed “What is it about everything Alternian having really long names?”

Jukilo shrugged “It’s a by product of when one of the prior empresses made a standard language to rule the planet by, before that it was like Earth where there were many languages. The government made a very exact no-nonsense language rather than the piecemeal naturally evolved languages you have on Earth. Standard Alternian has a lot of holes in it when it comes to nouns though, so that’s why you get descriptors in place of many nouns like Moo-beast or red fruit tree rather than more definitive names.”

“Huh.” Dexter remarked. His brows furrowed worriedly for a moment. “...Is math still the same?”

Jukilo rolled his eyes. Symbols differ, but across the universe, math is math. Let’s see what you have.”

Jukilo and Dexter had been in the middle of his homework, Jukilo quick translating math problems into Alternian script before guiding Dexter on how to solve them. He had to chastise Dexter a couple of times when the child simply read his mind to get the answer, but at the end of it Dexter was starting to get a better grip on the concept.

Papers were cleared away and the table was set for Dinner. Jukilo spoke to Chloe about the situation between bites of Moussaka, and while she was apprehensive of course she agreed that someone did need to help Violet.

Chloe put her hands on either side of her son’s face, her brows pinched with worry. “Are you sure about this baby?”

Dexter nodded “I want to help!”

Chloe smiled at him, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “You’re such a good kid.” She looked over to Jukilo “And you’ll be with him the whole time?”

Jukilo nodded “I’ll be with him the whole time”

Chloe gave him a look. “Thank you baby I know this is hard.” She leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

“Ok.” She nodded at the both of them “See what you can do to help her.”

That night, with the approval of all parties, Jukilo drafted a reply email, sending a copy to Scarlet’s personal email. He pressed “send” his talons clicking on the keyboard. He sighed, rubbing his temple. “Let’s hope this works.”  
  


 

Scarlet re-read the email, the morning sun sending bright swathes of gold light through her office, her nails clicking in a slow pattern across her desk. She hated that Jukilo even knew that Violet had her gift for reading minds. Also, since when did Jukilo have a mind reader of his own? That was dangerous. This was obviously just an excuse to get his mind reader close to her, see what he can dig up.

Scarlet hummed. She wasn’t entirely defenseless though, maybe Violet could help her get intel while Jukilo was getting intel on her. Her daughter needed more experience though before she could reliably get the information Scarlet needed.

She tapped a nail to her lips, a smile spreading slowly across her face.

Maybe there’s a way for Violet to...Practice…  
  


 

Violet ate alone in the penthouse’s master dining room. One of the tower’s kitchen staff unveiled a delicately composed plate from under a silver cloche. Waffles steamed slightly under a perfectly square pat of butter, sugar-free maple syrup drizzled across. To the side was a small bowl of blueberries, topped with a sprig of mint. The whole thing was completed with a couple strips of bacon and a paper napkin folded into a swan.

Violet sighed. She missed sitting on a stool in the breakfast nook besides the kitchen, Boris whistling as he spooned scrambled eggs out of the pan onto her plate.

The kitchen staff member bowed slightly, waiting by their service cart. Violet could feel the tension coming off of them in waves as they listened for the sound of her mother’s approach.

Violet waved them off in an act of mercy. “You may go.”

Their relief felt like a taut string being cut. They bowed again and hurried out of the apartment, leaving a plate on the other side of the expansive table for Scarlet.

Violet frowned at her food. She picked up the tiny sprig of artistically placed mint and threw it on the floor in a tiny angry act of rebellion. She picked at her blueberries slowly, dipping them into the syrup and eating them one at a time or simply just cutting them to pieces boredly with a blunted claw.

Scarlet finally made an appearance, tapping into the room on stilettos, a file folder in her hands. She gave her daughter a look. “Don’t play with your food darling, food is for EATING, not for playing.”

Violet rolled her eyes, freezing when she realized Scarlet could see her.

Scarlet frowned down at her daughter, a sneer pulling at her red lips. She leaned low, pinning her daughter with an icy stare. She can’t have Violet acting like this, not when her daughter had a battle to win. “Do. not.” Her voice was a low hiss, like a knife being pulled from its sheath. “TEST. ME.”

Violet was frozen in place, her shoulders hunched and her eyes wide.

Scarlet huffed, recalculating her strategy to get what she wanted from the child.

Suddenly Scarlet’s entire demeanor changed, shifting violently like a lightswitch being flipped. Her mother pouted, putting a shoulder up coquettishly, though Violet could still feel the iciness of her mother’s mind underneath the sweet exterior.

Scarlet batted her eyelashes “Or maybe you just don’t like your food?” She sighed dramatically “And after all that trouble I went through to order your favorites. Shame.”

She took out her phone. “Well lousy chefs make lousy meals.” She began to press a couple of buttons, holding the phone to her ear. “I’ll have them fired and replaced with someone you DO like!”

“No!” Violet put up her hands placatingly. “I’ll eat it! I just…” Violet looked away from her mother, chewing her lip slightly. “I-I just…”

Scarlet rolled her eyes “I-I-I!” She mimicked. Honestly, stuttering now? She’ll need to be better than THIS if she’s going to take on Jukilo’s mind reader. “Out with it Violet!” She leaned low, into her daughter’s space, smiling slightly. “I’m your mother.” She cooed, taking a piece of Violet’s hair to wind around a finger “You can tell me anything…”

Violet looked up at her mother. “...I’m worried about Boris. Where did he go?”

Scarlet’s eyes traveled across Violet’s face. She stood up, looking down at Violet. “He’s on vacation.” She said firmly. Her eyes narrowed “Or didn’t you believe me?”

Violet was frozen in her seat. “I do! I do!” She looked away, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

Scarlet was suddenly fixed with the idea that if Violet knew how to read minds, that meant that the little girl could read HER mind as well. The idea that her daughter could work against her sent a cold shiver down Scarlet’s back. That wouldn’t do. She had too many people betray her recently, she wasn’t going to add her own daughter to the list.

Scarlet hunched down, her hands on her knees, smiling warmly at Violet. “Honey do you remember what I told you? About the lions and the sheep?”

Violet nodded slowly. “...That you and me are lions, and everyone else is a sheep.”

Scarlet nodded “mhmm!” She hummed cheerily, she wound a small lock of Violet’s hair around her finger “That means you and me are a team!”

Violet nodded again.

Scarlet leaned in closer “And you have an amazing gift honey, the ability to read minds means that you’ll be able to do so many great things but…” She leaned in closer, her voice going low and her eyes hard. “... team members don’t play with each other’s minds.”

Violet nodded frantically.

Scarlet wound another lock of Violet’s hair around her finger. “Because if you did that…” She pulled just hard enough to sting. “That means we wouldn’t be on a team anymore.” Her voice was a low rasp, her eyes narrowed. “That means you would be on the OTHER team, against ME. Do you understand?”

Violet was near tears “I DO!” She squeaked out. “I UNDERSTAND!”

Scarlet frowned. “We don’t want THAT now do we?”

Violet shook her head frantically, careful of the hold her mother still had on her hair.

Scarlet smiled. “Good.”

Scarlet let go of Violet’s hair, the lightswitch of Scarlet’s demeanor flipping back once again, the icy presence of her mother’s mind melting to sunlight as her mother smiled warmly down at her. Scarlet laughed at Violet’s fearful expression. “So serious!” She giggled.

Scarlet touched a fingertip to Violet’s nose. “Boop!”

Violet reared back, clutching her nose with both hands as if her mother was about to sever it from her face.

Scarlet laughed again. “How about a special treat huh?” She grinned “How about you join me in this morning’s board meeting today?” She gave her daughter an ostentatious wink “I promise it will be fuuuuun!” she sing-songed.

Violet swallowed around the lump in her throat. “Oh um...ok.”

Scarlet leaned down to press a kiss to Violet’s hair “That’s my girl!”

Violet watched as her mother tapped over to the other side of the room, lifting the silver dome from her own breakfast plate. “Ooh!” She exclaimed “Waffles! How delightful!” She sat down, unfurling her napkin and setting it across her lap. “Now eat up sweetpea!” Scarlet took a bite of her plate of waffles “You have a big day ahead of you! You’ll need the energy!”

Violet looked down at her plate and despite the wave of nausea that ran through her, watching her mother eat and prattle happily on the other side of the table…

She did what she was told.

And she ate.

  
  


Violet stood next to her mother in the chrome elevator, a thick black eyepatch on her left eye as she glanced out at where the city was unfurling behind them, sun shining through the miami skyscrapers. A pigeon flew by and Violet felt a sudden wave of intense jealousy as she watched the happy little thing fly away from Calimistrum tower.

Scarlet was fixing her makeup in her reflection in the chrome elevator doors. She turned to look down at her daughter, a sly smile on her face. “You’re going to LIKE the treat I have in store for you!”

Violet tore her gaze from the pigeon to look up at her mother. “What’s the treat?”

Scarlet grinned “Well I think it’s high time for you to get some practice!” Scarlet leaned closer, her voice going playfully lower. “And I have a nice sheep for you to play with!”

Scarlet took a photo out of the folder she was carrying, passing it to her daughter. From the photo a rosy-cheeked old man grinned back at Violet. His hair had thinned to just a furry donut around his temples, the crown of his head shining through like a hard-boiled egg.

“Arthur Pimbleton.” Scarlet explained “68 years old, father of four, grandfather of two, recent widower and a severe alcoholic.” She leaned down to tap a red nail across the paper and smiled. “An easy first outing, if he had any more soft spots he would be a poached egg.”

Violet looked up at her mother with her one uncovered eye. “What do you want me to do?”

Scarlet shrugged, bored. “I honestly don’t care. Just play around. Practice. If he tries to accuse you of anything I can just have him thrown out as a drunk.”

Violet bit her lip, handing the photograph back to her mother. “Ok.”

Scarlet smiled, running her fingers through her daughter’s hair. “That’s my girl.”

For a brief moment Violet hated that she leaned into the touch, that she felt comforted by the gesture and the praise.

The elevator door opened to a white marble lobby. A secretary sat at the front desk made of solid white marble, streaks of gold running through the swirled stone. A silver spider logo on the front. She looked like the same type of pretty and thin as the women who had been working in the salon and Violet wondered briefly if her mother weighed and measured each woman before hiring them. As if Scarlet lined them all up before putting a tape measure around their waists. As if if there was some sort of cardboard cutout of a pretty woman they were compared against before being allowed to pick up a stapler.

The woman stood and bowed to Scarlet, her mod bobbed hairstyle so gelled down that it never moved out of place. “Welcome Miss, they have convened in conference room A in accordance to your instructions.”

Scarlet walked past her. “Thank you, Brenda that will be all.”

The woman simply smiled and bowed again, her name tag clearly reading “Ashley”.

Violet looked back briefly as she followed her mother down the hallway. The secretary smiled at Violet, waving shyly.

Violet looked away quickly before hurrying to catch up with her mother.

The conference room was as gold and white as the rest of the building. A long marble table went across the room, lined with chrome that reflected the midday sun through the windows. Large vases of roses spaced ever so often along the massive table. Men and women in grey suits and skirt suits were already sitting across from one another, perched in chairs, silent and calculating like a flock of crows.

Scarlet nodded towards the group, her lips upturned in a sweet poisoned smile. The click of her heels was like the warning sign for some venomous creature, like the rattle of a rattlesnake. “Good morning everyone.”

The assembly nodded back to Scarlet, some of the braver members of the board muttering back their own greetings.

Scarlet motioned to Violet. “Everyone this is my daughter Violet.” Violet took a moment to stand straight, her hands folded demurely in front of her. Scarlet smiled down at her “She’ll be joining us today to see how business is done.”

Violet could feel the thoughts in the room, a small chorus of sharp attentive minds becoming aware of her. She could feel their reactions to her presence ranging from “Oh that’s cute” to mild annoyance.

The man that had been in the photograph peered kindly at Violet. Arthur Pimple-something? His cheeks and nose flushed, red circles under his eyes and grey-faced. There was something...muted about him. Violet had to strain to hear the grey cotton soft workings of his mind. It was like he was set adrift in a grey cloud. The feeling one gets right before it rains, the tension and oppression in the air before it beads into raindrops.

He smiled slowly at her, his mind slow in noticing her. “Hello little one.” He had a slight accent, his voice low and rough. Violet could feel his fingers itch for the flask in his pocket. “And how are you today?”

Violet curtseyed slightly, crossing her ankles like her mother taught her “Very well, thank you sir.”

He smiled dumbly before his face fell suddenly, concern flooding through his grey stormcloud mind like a bolt of lightning, bright and sharp against the muted cloud. “Oh my dear! What happened to your eye?”

Violet’s hand flew up to her eyepatch. “Well I- uh-”

Scarlet put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “Eye infection.” She sighed “From the chlorine in the pool. I told her not to rub it so much, but she didn’t listen.”

He smiled. “You like swimming do you?”

Violet didn’t actually, but she nodded anyways.

Arthur laughed, his pot belly shaking. “My little Jamie used to love to go swimming! He swam like a fish! We couldn’t get him out of the pool!” He chortled.

The old man shook his head “That’s all from my wife’s side of the family that! Don’t have much of that aquatic nature myself.” He patted his fat belly “Unless one counts the great whale of course!”

Violet giggled, enjoying herself for the first time in days. “Or a walrus!”

He smiled “Aye! That’s the ticket! A walrus!” He laughed.

Scarlet coughed, leaning over her daughter. The hand that landed on Violet’s shoulder made the little girl jump. She smiled at the old man. “We’ll be starting soon Arthur. Come now Violet, you can sit up at the front with me.”

Violet nodded, following her mother up towards the front. The old man waved at her as she left and Violet waved back.

“Now.” Scarlet tapped an office chair next to her’s and Violet obediently hopped into it. Scarlet turned to address the board members “Let’s get started shall we?”

Violet twisted back and forth in her chair, bored out of her mind with the meeting. All numbers and sales reports and data. She turned her attention towards the old man.

Everyone’s thoughts seemed to have a different feel to them. The sharp knife’s edge of her mother, the crackle of electricity, the pompous self importance of silk, all of them  except her mother though had nervousness sparking in their minds like pop rocks bursting on the tongue. It was like a shark tank, all the sharks eyeing each other to make sure they aren’t the ones who become the next meal.

The old man’s mind though, was like wool, fuzzed over and sleepy-soft. Benign and muted. If they were sharks then he was those big slow fish Violet sometimes saw in fish tanks. The ones that kept to themselves and sucked dumbly on the glass. What were they again? She couldn’t remember what they were called.

Violet concentrated, it was like trying to pick apart a ball of extremely fuzzy yarn, like deciphering a song while underwater, trying to find where one thought ended and another one began in his mind.

She could feel his stilted movements. The ache in his gut as his body begged for the bottle in his coat pocket. She could hear vaguely that " _if this meeting takes any longer I’ll excuse myself to the loo, take a bit of a nip.”_ through the muddled grey fog. He shifted as if to rise from his seat, an excuse already on the tongue.

Violet wrinkled her nose at the idea. “No.” She thought back, idly swatting it away like an insect.

He paused.

He sat back in his seat.

...

Violet’s eyes widened.

Oh.

_That’s interesting._

Violet dug deeper, listening harder. She felt like if she concentrated enough then she could feel the chrome of the chair he was sitting in, the ins and outs of his breath, the muted softness weighing down his mind.

She could feel his mind wander away from Scarlet’s presentation, away from the respectful bickering among the board members to the vases of red roses on the table.

“ _Oh….”_ Violet could hear the old man think distantly “ _...Nora…”_

Suddenly Violet could feel something in his mind, a certain sort of constant pressure that the sleepy haze had dampened, like a balloon full of water. Violet’s curiosity was peaked. She took a hold of his last thought, “Nora”

And yanked.

The balloon popped, the storm thundered. Immeasurable waves of grief rolled over Violet. Anger and injustice, helplessness and bone-deep HURT.

“NORA!” He suddenly doubled over onto the table, slamming his fists into the marble, tears streaming down his anguished  face. “NORAAA!”

Violet yelped, a sudden pain in her eye like an icepick as her mind was assaulted with image after image.

A woman that was loved very much. A slender smiling face. A bouquet of roses as she smiled in a white dress. Kind words and a gentle voice and-

Children! Family and love! Laughter as they ran through the park. Dizzyingly happy in a warm green-gold summer day. Then-

Blood that morning. The fatigue the dizziness. She vomits into the kitchen sink after breakfast, shaking with tears in her eyes, the grandkids stop eating their waffles to stare, you shoosh them trying desperately to get them to stop crying, she falls unconscious to the floor and-

Doctor’s offices. The woman crying into her hands as they looked over an x-ray, sickness spreading across the cellophane image like a firework in her breast. It's spread too far. We’re sorry it’s spread too far and-

Her hair coming out in clumps. She cries holding a long lock of her own brown hair, and she’s hurting so much, so very very much, and there isn’t anything you can do about it except hold her hand and run your thumb over her knuckles, the bones of her hands prominent and fragile she’s losing too much weight then-

Tired. Sitting in a chair next to a hospital bed. She’s breathing shallowly, tubes in her mouth and wires on her chest. Her hand is skeletal where you hold it. Suddenly the constant electronic chirp of the machine she is hooked to stops, a loud drone taking its place. She writhes on the mattress, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, shaking and spasming like a fish being pulled up onto a boat. Doctors rush in, panic on their faces. “She’s seizing! Get the crash cart!”

Helplessness and hurt and anger that someone so good, so wonderful would have such a terrible early death. It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair-

It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair

It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair

It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair 

It wasn’t fair It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair it wasn't fair

 It wasn’t fair It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair it wasn't fair

It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair 

 

IT WASN'T FAIR 

 

“NORA!”  He screams, his voice going hoarse, tears still streaming down his red face.

The other members of the board have risen from their chairs, trying to soothe him.

“Arthur! Arthur stop!”

“Someone call his son!”

“Arthur listen to me! You’re ok!”

Scarlet doesn’t move from her chair, watching intently, the faintest smile on her face as she watches like a rapt movie goer.

Violet is panicking, tears running down her face, sinking into her eyepatch as she mourns a woman she’s never even met! The pain in her eye flares sharply. She wants it to stop! She just wants it to stop! She reaches out to the scattered grief-stricken parts of his mind yanking blindly and-

Arthur suddenly stops screaming.

He’s standing stock still

Breathing shallowly

staring at nothing

and then-

His eyes roll back into his head and he falls like a puppet with the strings cut off. He slams his face into the table, leaving a large splatter of blood against the pure white marble.

“Oh my god Arthur!” A woman screams “Call an ambulance!”

Another man is already fiddling with his phone.

Violet stood at the front of the table, absolutely horrified. The pain in her eye throbs sharply, she can taste blood on her lips and realizes that there is a steady trickle of cerulean blood coming from her nose.

Scarlet’s hands are on Violet’s shoulders and she finds herself suddenly steered out of the room and into the hallway. The receptionist from before is running past them and into the room with a first aid kit from under her desk. Violet watches wide-eyed as the group crowds around the old man on the floor, yelling his name, trying to wake him, calling 911.

Scarlet steers Violet into the elevator.

The mirrored doors close and Violet looks at her reflection in the chrome. The blood trickling down from her nose, the haunted look in her eyes.

It’s silent for a moment, as the elevator slowly ascends.

Scarlet bursts out laughing, her hand over her mouth as she giggles absolutely delighted. “That was fantastic!” she hums pleased, giggling like an eighth grade girl who just got away with a prank “That was the most interesting board meeting we’ve ever had!”

Violet can’t stop thinking about the blood smear on the table. His memory of holding his wife’s hand as she died.

“Do you think he’s dead?” Violet whispers.

Scarlet blinks, looking down at her daughter. She ran her fingers through her daughter’s hair. “Oh no no no…” She soothed gently.

Violet didn’t look up at her, didn’t lean into her mother’s touch, just continued to stare at her own reflection, the blood trickling over her lips, the tear trail leading from under her eyepatch. Her eye still hurt.

“The old fool just knocked himself out is all.” Scarlet soothed. She leaned down to press a kiss to Violet’s temple. “You did very well today.”

Violet looked up at her mother, a desperate needy look on her face. “...I did good?”

A slow smile stretched itself across Scarlet’s face. “Oh Violet…” She laughed under her breath, winding a piece of Violet’s hair in between her fingers “You did wonderfully….”

Violet nodded, turning back to the mirrored door.

The doors opened into the apartment and Scarlet stalked into the living room. “I think for tonight.” Scarlet mused “I’ll order something special, Violet my dear would you like to order Sushi? We never did get to ordering it the other day...”

“No thank you.” Violet spoke slowly, barely above a whisper, careful to keep her voice even. “I’m not really hungry.” She looked up at her mother. “...May I go to bed early?”

Scarlet blinked. “Oh well…” Scarlet shrugged slightly, putting down her phone “I suppose you would be tired after such a performance. If you change your mind I’ll save some for you in the fridge.”

Violet nodded, giving her mother a small curtsey “Thank you.”

Scarlet smiled. “Goodnight honey, sweet dreams, sleep well.” Her smile widened farther. "We have another big day ahead of us tomorrow!"

Violet nodded, suppressing a shudder, turning away and walking towards her room. “Goodnight momma…”

Violet staggered into her room, closing the door behind her carefully. She collapsed onto her bed, not bothering to change out of her blouse or skirt. Her talons dug into the mattress as she pressed her face into the pillow, sobbing as hard as she could.  
  
Mister Boris where _are_ you?

 

Sharon had the collar of her coat turned up. She was parked on the side of the road in one of the cars Laquda bought from time to time on a whim, making sure it was one of the ones she hadn’t been seen in before. Hazy yellow light from a streetlight above her illuminated the road, bugs circling the light, humming into the still Miami night.

The side door of the car opened and another passenger got in.

“Took you long enough.” Sharon murmured. “What was this new development you wanted to talk to me about?”

Gabriel sat on the other side of Sharon’s car, Sharon could see scratches littering his neck and shoulders under his loose jacket.

“What the hell.” Sharon turned to look at him “Were you mauled by a fucking bear?”

Gabriel took out a cigarette, lighting one end and taking a drag. “Nope. Worse. Scarlet.”

Sharon stared at him for a moment before the pieces clicked into place. She grimaced, turning away in disgust “Jesus CHRIST.”

He shrugged, his lips pressed into a grim line “Yeah I know.”

Sharon shook her head “How the hell did you even stomach it?”

He took another drag of his cigarette, rolling down the window to blow smoke into the night air “She’s a real fucking piece of work I’ll give her that, but I’m not as breakable as she thinks I am, I’ll be alright.”

Sharon rubbed her temple. “I...I know I pay you a lot but I don’t pay you enough for this. You deserve a raise oh my GOD.”

He gave her a crooked smile, his voice low and smokey “Call it hazard pay.”

“Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?” Sharon gave him a look “That you got in her pants?”

“No.” He chuckled, fixing Sharon with a sharp look, his eyes flashing green in the hazy yellow light of the streetlamp “I wanted to meet to tell you that I got into her pants and if I played my cards right…” He gave Sharon a sly look “...Her apartment.”

Sharon grimaced. “Oh my god you’re going to do her AGAIN?”

He shrugged “Whatever it takes to place a bug. I really don’t care as long as the job gets done. Isn’t that why you had me put there for?”

Sharon gave him a look “You are terrifyingly efficient”

He gave her a mocking smile, his white teeth flashing against the split lip Scarlet had given him “awww. Coming from you that means the world to me.”

Sharon looked at the bruises blooming on his collar bone, a frown coming to her lips. “...Are you sure about this?”

He turned to her, a sharp-toothed smile stretching across his face. “Yeah. Let’s bring the bitch down.”

Sharon grinned.  
  


 

Scarlet was in her ruined office, tapping at her keyboard. The mirror in her office was across from her, one half of Scarlet’s reflection bisected down the middle from where she had thrown her phone at the mirror, one side smooth and normal, the other side broken into eight disjointed pieces, each one reflecting back one of her hooded red eyes.

 

Dear Jukilo Jurrok,

I would be absolutely delighted to have you and Mister Dexter come to my home. Please come as soon as you can. I can’t wait for both of you to really see what Violet can do!

Love,

Scarlet

  
  


Violet woke up a couple of hours later, the moonlight shining softly through her window. Her clothes were rumpled from sleeping in. She rose from her bed and padded to her dresser. She looked at herself in the mirror in her room, reaching back to untie her eyepatch from her head and-

Three pupils stared back of Violet from her left eye.  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hooooo boy
> 
> HOOOOO BOY
> 
> Shit is about to GO DOWN!
> 
> I hope you liked it! Please comment your reactions I'm so curious what you think! Things are coming together soon and I hope you'll like the surprise I have in store for you ;3
> 
> Next up on the update roster is the next chapter of Starship Skaia! Due to come out in the next 15 days to a month. See you there!


	5. The end and a beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel makes his move. Violet and Dexter meet. Scarlet unravels and Violet must make a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friendo its the endo
> 
> Hey guys I'm not going to lie some bad things happen this chapter so read at your own risk
> 
> tw for serious injuries and abuse

Violet laid on the floor of the bathroom, pressing her face to the cool tile. Her eye patch was on the floor next to her like a dead spider on the bath rug.  Violet breathed heavily, pressing her face farther into the cold flooring to try and soothe the throbbing ache in her eye. 

“Come on.” Violet whispered to herself, grunting as she rose to her hands and knees. “Find that pain and use it.” Violet parroted her mother, her head spinning from the pain, pushing back the nausea that threatened to boil over, her eye clenched shut and both new and dried cerulean tears trailing from it. “Rise above it.”

Violet rose from the floor, scrubbing at her face and taking a few deep breaths to stable herself. She padded quietly across the bathroom floor, careful to not let her talons click against the tile. She stepped up onto the stepstool in front of the mirror and washed her face, splashing it with cold water.

She looked up as she dried her face, four small pupils now looking back at her from her left eye. Violet leaned in to examine them, the pupils arranged in a sort of diamond pattern in the iris. 

Violet didn’t know much about other children, human or troll, but she had a vague idea about what was probably normal among both species, and multiple pupils in one eye were almost definitely not included on the list.

Why else would her mother have her hide her eye? Lie to others about why Violet is wearing her eye patch?

She’s ashamed of her. 

Her mother knows she’s weak.

Violet’s stomach dropped like a stone, fear shuddering through her at the thought. You can’t have a weak lion, you just can’t.  Desperation and fear clarified something in her mind, sharpening her resolve to a point. Violet looked at her reflection in the mirror, at her clenched eye, fluttering and surrounded by a flush of cerulean. 

Something had to be done.

Violet took her mother’s razor from the edge of the sink, popping off the pink cover with shaking fingers, pulling out the blade from the handle.

“I’m  _ not _ weak.” Violet hissed to the empty bathroom, there was a tremble in her shoulders but a steely glint in her eye. She raised the blade until it was eye-level, her four pupils reflecting back to her in the polished steel. 

“I’m a lion and I’m a visionary.” Violet breathed heavily, parroting the words from the back of one of the self-help books her mother had written. She stared back at her reflection and brought the razor closer to the offending eye. “I see what needs to be done and I do it.”

Violet’s hands were shaking as she brought the razor closer to her eye, using the other hand to pull her eyelid out of the way and-

It would be quick, she told herself, watching the glimmer of steel in her periphery vision grow slowly nearer.

Pain is temporary.

She is a lion.

….and a lion.

Is 

not 

afraid 

to 

draw 

blood.

The tip of the razor reflected back the four pupils of her mutated eye, the blade almost touching the lens and-

Violet threw the razor into the sink, putting her hand over her mouth to stifle the sob threatening to come from her throat. Tears rolled down her face and over her knuckles, cerulean drops falling onto the clean white porcelain.

She couldn’t do it. She just couldn’t do it.

She’s weak.

Violet turned on the water to wash away the tears in the basin, washing for a moment and pressing a towel to her face when one of her ears flicked back.

One of the two minds that were in her mother’s room were now awake.

Violet picked up her eyepatch from the tiles and wound it around her head, tying a smart knot before pushing open the bathroom door and peering out.

Violet wasn’t exactly naive when it came to her mother’s trysts. She had a child’s understanding about such things, but it was rare for them to be brought into the penthouse, rather than one of the many apartments her mother kept over the city. Violet of course never saw any of these apartments, but she knew where most of them vaguely were, having traveled with Boris on more than one occasion to pick up her mother from some fancy complex wearing sunglasses and last night’s dress.

There was a certain sort of rhythm to these things though, and the fact that any of them had been allowed into the penthouse was a drastic change in protocol. Something had happened to her mother ever since Boris had left, her mood swings had more extreme points on either end and she seemed more restless and paranoid.

Violet didn’t quite know what to make of this breach in norms, but filed it away in the back of her mind, watching intently to see the person who would come out of the bedroom.

Gabriel her former fencing instructor slid his way out of her mother’s room and Violet suppressed a small gasp, putting her tiny hands over her mouth. He moved silently, closing the door behind him ever so gently to keep Scarlet from waking. 

He was bare-chested, carrying a shirt under one arm and Violet could see the litany of scratches across his back, many accompanied by finger-sized bruises. Despite that though, he moved with a sort of quiet self-assuredness. It was a quieter sort of power than what her mother had, like the difference between a lion roaring and a panther silently stalking through the underbrush. One vocal and looking for the other to cower before them, as an assurance of their power, and the other calculating and silently confident, waiting to strike.

Gabriel walked into the living room, pulling on his shirt silently. He fiddled with his belt buckle and opened a small compartment under the smooth metal of the clasp. He pulled out something too small for Violet to see from where she was, placing it gingerly under the frame of Scarlet’s portrait. Her mother in the painting smiling down smugly at the both of them.

“Hello Violet.” Gabriel spoke, looking over one shoulder slightly at the little girl.

Violet squeaked and hunched in on herself slightly, surprised at getting caught spying.

“It’s alright,” Gabriel sat down on the leather couch, patting the space besides him, his posture was open and relaxed. “I just want to talk, ok?”

Violet looked through the split between the wood and the door frame, biting her lip for a moment before hesitantly moving out into the apartment, stepping silently over the polished wood. She stepped over to the couch but didn’t sit down, only stared at him owlishly from where she stood by the arm rest.

“What did you want to talk to be about?” Violet asked, her lips pulled into a frown. She couldn’t help but sneak a glance at the painting, beginning to put two and two together about what was hidden there. 

Gabriel had his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped together as he looked up at her, something very solemn in his hazel eyes. “Are you happy Violet?”

Violet blinked. Of all the things that Violet was told she was supposed to be, being happy had never entered into the equation before. “Am I-” Her brow furrowed, biting her bottom lip. “-supposed to be?”

“You can be,” He whispered, giving her a soft look “If you want to be.” Gabriel frowned slightly. “Violet… you know what it was that I put there behind the painting… Don’t you?”

Violet couldn’t look away from him. She thought about lying, she thought that she  _ should _ lie, but when she opened her mouth she shuddered out a breath and- 

“Yes.” Violet whispered. “It’s a bug, isn’t it?”

He nodded “That’s right.” He leaned forward. “Do you know why?”

Violet stared back at him, neither nodding or shaking her head. Eventually Gabriel continued.

“Your mother isn’t good to people, Violet.” He gave her a meaningful look “And I don’t think she’s being good to you either.”

Violet stared him down, her brow furrowed. “It’s not like that.” She whispered.

“Oh?” Gabriel betrayed nothing with his expression, leaning back in his seat. “Then how is it?”

Violet thought for a moment, her kitten-sharp teeth worrying her bottom lip for a moment. “She wants me to be strong… that’s all.”

“There’s a difference between being strong, and having to develop a tough coating as a coping mechanism.” Gabriel whispered, his eyes suddenly going tired. “Trust me I know.” He motioned vaguely to the apartment around them. “You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be. We can help with that.”

Violet huffed, fiddling with the sleeves of her nightgown and frowning, feeling vaguely treasonous. “Where would I even go?”

Gabriel stood up from his seat then. Violet moved back a couple of steps but he only moved to take the cup and decanter off the side table and pour himself a glass. 

“Your mom’s original last name wasn’t Hasselti.” Gabriel mused as he poured himself the glass. “It was a stage name she chose when she got into modeling. She was never close to her cousins, probably due to that whole-” He huffed out a laugh “-being well… her…. thing that she has going on.”

Violet sneered at him. Agreeing somewhere deep in her heart, but not wanting to hear her mom badmouthed on principle. 

He looked up at Scarlet’s painting on the mantelpiece, her hooded red eyes staring down at him from under the elegant curl of her blonde-white hair. “There’s quite the family resemblance you know.” He shrugged.“You would have older siblings either way.” Gabriel spoke softly. “Both sets of twins are just about ready to finish college...”

Violet processed this for a moment. She hadn’t even considered she had family outside of the penthouse before. “...Why are you telling me all of this?”

Gabriel turned back to her, his eyes soft but a determined set to his shoulders. “Because Violet, you’ve never been given a choice over your own life, not a real one really, not for the entire eight years of your existence so far.” He knelt down so that they were on a more level field, staring back at her. “And I want you to have a choice in what happens next.” 

He pointed back at the painting where the bug was hidden. “If you want, you know where it is. You can take it down, smash it with a hammer, flush it down the toilet, heck-” He gave her a smile. “-You can show it to your mom if you’d like!”

“But she-” Violet interjected, pausing to look back at the entrance to the living room to make sure Scarlet didn’t suddenly come down the hallway. “-She would catch you!”

Gabriel gave her a conspiratorial look, a roguish flash of white teeth. The Flynn Rider to her Rapunzel in Violet’s favorite Disney movie. “She could  _ try _ .”

His smile slowly turned solemn. “If you do that... it will tell me that you’re happy and that you want to stay.” He put a hand to his chest and gave her a serious and earnest look. “And if you’re happy then I will respect that, I’ll leave you alone ok?”

Violet nodded, fiddling idly with her talons as she thought about it.

“But if you’re not happy here, and you want to leave…” Gabriel whispered, pointing up at the painting. “That there means that you won’t have to _ ever  _ be alone with her again, not really. It means that people can come when they know you need help. It means you’ll be able to leave soon.”

Violet nodded, looking over at the painting her mother smirking back at her from the canvas. “Y-you can’t….” She bit her lip, expecting a reprimand for the stuttering, but Gabriel only waited patiently for her to get her words out. “Y-you can’t win against her.” Violet whispered, looking at Gabriel, panicked like she was watching him about to stick his hand in a blender. “You just can’t. She  _ doesn’t lose _ .” Her voice wavered in her throat “And she’ll do something terrible to you if you try."

Gabriel smiled. “I thought I taught you better than that.” He laughed gently. “It’s like fencing. Everyone has a weakness, you just have to be patient and strike at the right moment.”

This thought buzzed in Violet’s mind, the prospect that her mother  _ could _ be defeated. She felt like David in front of the goliath, just a rock in her hand but a desperate kind of hope igniting in her heart. At the same time, she felt an immense guilt. She should love her mother, she  _ does  _ love her mother and yet-

The question bothered Violet. Her mother never hit her or anything...but the click of her mother’s heels on marble filled her with such a  _ dread _ . Maneuvering around her mother’s moods, walking on eggshells and looking desperately every day for any sign of how to fit into her ever changing standards made her so uneasy and desperate.

Violet like most children, loved her mother, she really did. Despite everything she loved her.

And so, to reconcile the things her mother did, the lying, the harshness, everything, she told herself that  _ all _ mothers were like that. That her mother was a good mother who just wanted Violet to be strong, and it was Violet who was failing her by being weak.

Then why did she want to escape?

“Just remember…” Gabriel whispered when Violet didn’t answer right away. “I’m on your side ok? You and me are a team on this, alright?”

A wave of nausea passed through her. That’s just what her mother said too.

Violet thought about it, the two paths in front of her. Ripping the bug from under the picture frame and taking it to her mother, or leaving it be. Have things stay the same and live with constant dread and anxiety or… to face an uncertain future without her, with relatives she had never even met. It could be better…

It could also be worse though.

“It’s not really my choice though...Is it?” Violet whispered, swallowing the frog in her throat as she looked back at Gabriel. “Not if  _ you’re _ the one giving me  _ both _ choices.”

Gabriel shrugged, rubbing idly at some rugged-looking stubble on his chin. “That’s a fair criticism, but this is what I can offer you Violet.”

Violet nodded numbly, a lot weighing on her mind.

Gabriel smiled gently “You don’t have to decide now ok? Is there anything else you need before I go?”

Violet bit her lip, fiddling shyly with her sleeves and unwilling to quite meet his eyes. “Um… Can you make scrambled eggs?”

Gabriel nodded. “Sure kiddo.” He stood up and began to move into the kitchen, Violet following behind him. Gabriel gave a cautious look around the apartment. “I thought you had a personal cook up here though?”

Violet frowned, not liking how easily Gabriel moved into a space she had thought of as belonging to only her and Boris. “He’s on vacation…” She watched his fingertips skim across the marble and regretting ever inviting him in here if he was going to put his mitts all over Boris’s place. “...Extended vacation.”

Gabriel paused at that, looking down at Violet for a moment before opening the fridge and rooting around for ingredients. “Ah.”

Violet sat on the the barstool at the kitchen island. She raised her little chin mock-confidently. “He’ll be back any day now.”

Gabriel pulled out a frying pan, twirling it in his hands as deftly as he did a sword. “Yup.”

Violet frowned. “My mother isn’t lying about that.” She told him, mostly to assure herself.

Gabriel gave her a meaningful look over his shoulder. “Never said she was.”

“Good.” Violet whispered, scratching a blunted claw against the marble countertop. Somehow feeling more unsure when he agreed with her. “Because she isn’t.”

Gabriel didn’t answer, only tilted the pan so that the butter covered the bottom. “I wonder….” He mused, something still in the air between them. “If your mother would tell you where he is….” He cracked an egg into bowl and gave her a look over his shoulder, something unreadable in his eyes. “You know… to send a postcard.”

“A postcard?” Violet asked.

“Well why not?” Gabriel poured the egg into the pan. “People on….extended vacations… love getting postcards from home.”

Violet sensed something in those words, knew that Gabriel knew more than he was letting on. He  wanted Violet to decide, but knew her reluctance. He was giving Violet a test to pass on to her mother, a compus for Violet to read and choose accordingly. 

It was a challenge… and Violet’s mother taught her to never back down from a challenge.

“Fine.” Violet spat out petulantly, anxiety flaring through her despite the bravado in her words. “Maybe I will!”

“Good.” Gabriel answered back neutrally.

Something about the lack of pushback angered Violet, seething where she sat on the kitchen stool. “Good!”

Gabriel spooned some scrambled eggs onto a plate and set it in front of her. “You’re breakfast madame.” He bowed in a kind of silly way that reminded her of Boris.

Violet suddenly felt sheepish for yelling, picking up her fork and spearing a bit if egg. “Oh um...thank you.”

Gabriel smiled at her, warm and wide. “No problem.”

They could hear the door to Scarlet’s bedroom slam open. Violet squeaked and stiffened in her seat. She looked back at Gabriel direly. “You should run before she sees you.” She whispered.

Gabriel leaned against the countertop, watching the kitchen door not with fear, but with the adrenaline smile of a base jumper looking down at the steep descent before them and looking forward to it. “No.”

“Gabriel!” Violet hissed, pushing at his arms leaning on the counter to try and will him into action.

“Do you want to know a secret Violet?” Gabriel asked her quietly.

Violet looked up at him wide-eyed, terror forming a stone in her stomach and her heart fluttering.

“Most kids don’t have to be afraid of their own moms.” He whispered gently.

The kitchen door slammed open. Scarlet stood there silhouetted in the bright light of the morning for a moment before their eyes adjusted. Her blonde hair was messy in her face, a red kimono-like bathrobe sitting off-kilter on her shoulders. She was wearing a cream satin nightgown and a variety of bruises on her neck and shoulders.

“What the fuck…” Scarlet hissed, a red eye peering through the white-blonde curtain of her hair, glaring at Gabriel. “Are  _ you _ still doing here?”

Gabriel seemed to preen slightly under the hateful gaze. “ _ I’m  _ cooking your daughter breakfast.” “He put a hand to his chest. “She was hungry after all.” He tsked under his breath. “You should really be  more on top of that.”

Scarlet sent him a withering glare, her upper lip pulling up  in a sneer. “Are you questioning my ability as a mother?” She smirked, a hateful quirk of her lips. “Careful there Gabriel….” Her voice lowered to an amused rasp. “Unless you want to be without a job.”

“You know…” Gabriel picked something out from under his fingernails and flicked it to the floor, making Scarlet growl at him. “Someday you’re going to end up alone and you’ll only have yourself to blame...” He gave her an impassive look “It’s because people like you are so….” He sighed and shook his head “So goddamn common. Just another mean whore who blundered her way into fortune.” 

Scarlet’s eyes widened. “Y-”

“What can I say?” Gabriel shrugged, a shit-eating grin on his face. “You’re a shitty boss, a shitty person….” He got into her face and grimaced, hissing through his teeth, shaking his head slowly. “...and not great in the sack either.”

Scarlet growled “Y-you” She hissed through her teeth and started again “Fucker! You won’t work in another gym in the city! In the state! In the entire-”

“I already put in my two weeks.” Gabriel gave her a lopsided grin. “And don’t worry about the severance package.” His smile dropped “I don’t need your goddamn money.”

Scarlet’s eyes went wider.

Gabriel handed her the dirty frying pan. “Oh and scrub this won’t you?” He picked up his leather jacket and shrugged it on, giving her a smug look.

Scarlet held the frying pan, too stunned to react for a moment. She shocked herself from her stupor,  shoulders shaking with rage, and her grip on the handle going bone white. She looked up, her eyes full of fury and her teeth gritted. She raised the frying pan to swing at him. “WHY YOU FUCKING-”

Scarlet moved to hit Gabriel with the frying pan, but he smoothly ducked under her arm towards the door. Scarlet ended up slamming the frying pan into the countertop, making Violet squeak and the pan break in half.

“Wow.” Gabriel mused, unimpressed from where he leaned against the doorframe, watching the enraged Scarlet in the middle of the kitchen with half of a broken frying pan. “All those action movies and you can’t fight for shit... Maybe you should have gone to the gym instead of sending your daughter.”

Scarlet’s hair was messy in her face, her robe falling from her shoulders, breathing heavily from the exertion and glaring daggers at him. She screamed, throwing the frying pan at him, but before it landed, Gabriel closed the door, the broken frying pan embedding into the wood and Gabriel’s laughter echoing down the hall.

Scarlet’s hands were twitching at her sides. She ran to the door, but both her and Violet could hear the elevator go down, signaling Gabriel’s departure.

“That son of a bitch.” Scarlet whispered, pulling the frying pan from the wood.

Violet sat on the stool, watching the entire exchange with both fear and interest. It was like watching the roadrunner escape the coyote. Something clicked in her mind, watching the way her mother was shaking after the encounter, her labored breath, and the bruises on her shoulders.

Scarlet huffed, pulling her hair back as she breathed heavily. “Bastard.” She hissed. She turned back to her daughter, her eyes widening when she realized she had been there the entire time.

Violet stared back at her mother, one hand holding up her chin.

“Don’t slouch.” Scarlet chastised half-heartedly, taking Violet’s plate of half-eaten scrambled eggs from her and dumping it into the trash. She turned back to her daughter, but quickly looked away when she saw Violet’s eye staring back at her unflinchingly. “I’ll order you something from the kitchen.” She dropped the plate into the sink where there was starting to grow a mound of uncleaned dishes since Boris’s departure.

Violet watched her mother, a calculating look in her eye. “Alright…”

“After you eat, wash up and get dressed.” Scarlet demanded, pushing her hair out of her face and smiling. “We have visitors coming today.”  
  
  


 

Jukilo was driving the car he and Chloe shared, having dropped his girlfriend off at the school where she worked earlier that morning. He glanced at the rear-view mirror at Dexter in the backseat, the cerulean playing with the condensation on the back window. 

“Are you still up for seeing her?” Jukilo asked. “There’s no shame in not wanting to go.”

Dexter didn’t bother glancing up at where he was drawing on the window. “You’re nervous too.” It was a statement not a question, Dexter being a psychic knew Jukilo’s emotions as a given.

Jukilo sighed. “Like I said… Her mother is an unpleasant woman. I want to limit your exposure to her as much as I can.”

Dexter nodded “And yours as well.”

“Yes.” Jukilo huffed. “And mine as well. Can you blame me?”

Dexter sighed, wiping his clawed hands on his pants. “Not really.”  
  


 

 

Calamistrum tower rose above the Miami skyline, an obelisk of glass and chrome, reflecting the sun and turning it wrathfully onto the city, like a bolt of pure light struck down into the earth from some vengeful god of old. The doormen and the concierge wore matching blood-red uniforms with gold buttons, black pants and shiny black shoes, officers of a despot’s army standing guard before the intimidating structure. 

Dexter got out of the car as Jukilo handed the keys to the shitty buick to the concierge. None of the doormen seemed willing to step out of line or look anyone in the eye, a cloud of fear hanging around them. The fear in the air made Dexter’s ears twitch. He tried smiling at one of the doormen, but they only seemed to get more jittery, nervousness sparking across their minds like electricity.

Once inside the building, stepping onto the white marble of the lobby, swirls of gold inlaid into the stone, Dexter could feel that the atmosphere continued. The receptionist smiled at them when they entered, but her mind was thick with fear under a thin veneer of friendliness.

“Hello!” She addressed Jukilo when he approached the desk, cocking her head and smiling just a touch too wide to truly be genuine, her bobbed hair never moving out of place with the motion. “How may I help you?”

Jukilo nodded politely. “We’re here for a meeting with Scarlet.”

A spark of nervousness like lightning across the oppressive cloud of fear that was her mind. Her smile faltered for a moment but then came back in full force. “Do you have an appointment?”

“We do.” Jukilo nodded. “Jukilo and Dexter for 2pm.”

“Alright.” The woman tapped at her chrome-plated computer. “Let me just see here...” Her eyes scanned the screen for a moment. “Here we are! Take the hallway to the left and go up the elevator to the 17th floor.”

Jukilo nodded. “Thank you.”

Dexter began to follow him but paused at the receptionist’s desk. “You don’t have to stay here you know.” He told her a matter-of-factly.

The woman blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Nobody’s student loans are  _ that _ bad. There are other jobs you know.” Dexter assured her. He reached across the marble and patted her hand. “Also your parents are probably not as mad at you as you think they are. Talk to them and maybe you can move back to Kansas while you get back on your feet.”

The woman looked like she was about to burst into tears “How do you-”

“Dexter.” Jukilo growled, putting a hand on either of his shoulders and steering him towards the elevators. “No.”

“One more thing!” Dexter shouted down the hallway as he was ushered away. “You boyfriend has no right to speak to you like that! You’re very lovely! No matter how you cut your hair!”

“DEXTER.” Jukilo hissed, pushing him into an elevator.

The last thing that either of them saw before the elevator closed was the receptionist howling with tears at her desk.

  
  
  


Jukilo glared at Dexter when they were both on the elevator, listening to the howling sobbing of the secretary fade as the elevator rose. 

Dexter stared back at him, eyes wide and innocent. “What?”

They arrived on the 17th floor, the doors opening to another chrome and marble lobby. There was a man sitting in a plush white leather armchair off to the side. The old man rubbed a liver-spotted hand across his temple, he was mostly bald, with just a thin band of hair under the crown of his head. He looked absolutely bedraggled in a rumpled suit, a haunted look in his eyes and a hospital bracelet still on his wrist.

A woman and a man stood on either side of him. The woman put a hand to the old man’s shoulder and rubbed slightly. “I hate to say it, but maybe Scarlet is right Arthur, you were pushing yourself too hard after…” She didn’t say what after, but all three of them got a slightly pained look on their faces.

“I just…” Arthur rubbed down his face, sallow and grey. “I just don’t know what happened to me there. I shouldn’t have even come here today…”

“Come on dad….” A middle-aged man with blonde hair looked sadly down at him. “Let’s get you home ok?”

“Excuse me?” Dexter padded over to the group despite Jukilo trying to pull him away by the wrist. “Are you ok mister?”

The old man smiled up at Dexter kindly, despite the obvious pain on his face, a tear rolled down his bulbous nose and he wiped it away. “Oh my!” He whispered “I do believe I have the pleasure of making my second troll acquaintance. Good evening young man.” He sighed “Please don’t worry on my account. I’ve just had uh…” He frowned and sighed. “A bad turn is all I suppose.”

Dexter bit his bottom lip. “Is it alright if I do something?”

The old man looked up at Dexter with humor on his eyes, like a grandfather getting ready to see a child’s magic trick. “Very well.” She smiled gently and brushed off his pants. “What will it be?”

Dexter put a tiny finger on either of the old man’s temples. “Relax…”

The old man gasped in a breath, his head wrenching back and his eyes widening, his pupils narrowing to pinpricks.

“Dad!” The other man exclaimed, the woman’s eyes going wide.

“It’s ok.” Dexter murmured, his eyes flickering back and forth. 

Finally Dexter took his hands away. The old man blinked and rubbed at his head. There was a definite improvement in him, the way he held himself and the clarity in his eyes. 

“H-how?” The old man murmured.

“You were just jumbled up is all.” Dexter explained with a shrug. “It’s a quick fix and you should see a grief counselor, but this will improve how you function until then.”

The old man nodded, reaching a hand out to shake the child’s hand. “I…I don’t know how but...Thank you young man.”

Dexter smiled “No worries Mister Pimbleton!” Dexter gushed as an embarrassed Jukilo steered him away.

The woman looked over at the older and then the younger man as the two trolls left the lobby. “How did he know your last name?”

Arthur rubbed the stubble on his chin, his brows furrowing as some things came into focus.

  
  
  


Scarlet sat at the end of the conference room, the queen in her castle, the shining leather office chair her throne. Violet stood to her side, her hands behind her back and her expression neutral. Her mother had once again braided her hair into two neat braids, each ending in a neat crimson bow.

“Hello.” Scarlet grinned at Jukilo and Dexter as they came into the room, her blonde hair haloed by the light from the window behind her but her face set in darkness, just the curl of her smile and her red eyes visible. “It’s so good of you to join us.”  
  
  


 

Dexter sat with Violet at the edge of the room, next to the plate glass window. The both of them sitting cross-legged on the floor, their eyes closed and their minds touching.

Scarlet watched the two children with the eyes of a hawk, a smile smile curling at the corners of her lips.

Jukilo watched with a certain sort of uneasiness, his eyes tracing over Dexter’s features for any sign of distress.

  
  
  


Scarlet had informed Violet in no uncertain terms that a repeat performance of what she had done to Arthur would be the preferable outcome. She had expected a rivalry, a match of wits of some kind not-

Dexter smiled at her, kind and gentle, and he was the only other troll kid she had ever known. It was a surreal experience for Violet. He had grey hands like hers, talons like hers, horns and sharp teeth and psychic po-

There was the idea of a giggle. Words being expressed but not said. 

_ Well you’re not the first troll kid I’ve met.  _ Violet could feel the memory behind the thought Dexter sent at her, a yellow blood with a wide mischievous smile wearing a sunhat and a yellow dress. The sounds of a creaking swing set and children’s laughter.  _ But you are the first psychic troll kid I’ve ever met. _

Violet flushed, forgetting that he could see her thoughts too.  _ It hadn’t really occurred to me to send messages this way. _

_ I could teach you!  _ Came the honest and earnest reply. Violet could see herself in a small desk with Dexter in front of the class, a drawing of a brain in chalk on the board.  _ There’s so many ways you can use your gift to help people! _

Reluctance. The pressure of someone else watching.  _ That’s not really what I should be learning.  _ Violet responded.  _ I need to be stronger, not kinder.  _ The word “Kinder” held a mental image, soft, yielding, stupid and useless.

Dexter frowned.  _ Being kind doesn’t mean being weak. _

Violet thought back to Lila, the kindness she showed her and the look on the young woman’s face when her mother fired her. She thought of Boris. She thought of Arthur and his kind smile. Of all the people in the building who were generally good, but were beaten down every day by the more powerful Scarlet.

Dexter frowned.  _ Moms aren’t supposed to be like that. That didn’t happen because they were kind, it happened because your mom was cruel. _

_ Shut up.  _ Violet hissed.  _ If they were just stronger then- _

Dexter thought about his mother’s smile, the paint on her fingers as she worked on one project or another, the light of the morning golden around her curls. He thought about her holding him when he cried, kissing his forehead when he cried, rocking him gently back and forth and rubbing his back.

_ Shut up.  _ Violet grit her teeth. 

Dexter thought about how her mother treated others, the way she cared for Jukilo, Sharon, Ben, Laquda and all of their neighbors. How it took real strength to be there for people, to build them up rather than tear them down. There was the smell of saltwater and the feeling of sand under her feet. Dexter’s mother Chloe was glowing, haloed with the full force of the sun behind her as she smiled, angelic as she helped teach Dexter and Lily how to swim.

_ I   S A I D   S H U T U P!  _

Violet screamed as she mentally shoved Dexter, making the other child yelp and fall backwards on the marble of the conference room floor. 

Jukilo jumped up from his seat. “Dexter!”

Dexter stared back at her, Violet’s shoulders a tense and angry line, her teeth bared in an unconscious display as she breathed heavily. A trail of cerulean tears dripped down from under her eyepatch.

Dexter could see all the emotions swirling in her head, anger, bitter resentment and jealousy.

Violet stood above him, her hands balled into fists.

_ You may have the family I always wanted…  _ Violet whispered into his mind.  _ The friends I’ve always wanted and a mother who coddles you… _

Violet’s mouth turned to a sneer.  _ But you ARE weak.  _ She stood a little straighter, looking down at him with bored indifference.  _ Do you want to know how I know that? _

Dexter stared back at her, watching the sharp spike of pain in Violet’s mind and the determination sharpening there like a knife. 

Scarlet watched over her daughter’s shoulder, a ghost of a smirk on her lips and her eyes wide.

_ Because you let me in here.  _ Violet whispered, smug and cruel as her voice reverberated on the inside of Dexter’s skull.  _ That was your first mistake. _

With the finesse of a lumberjack doing open heart surgery Violet slammed mentally into Dexter’s open mind. Dexter, having never had met another psychic and having been so open and trusting with Violet was defenseless. A shock of pain wracked through Dexter’s body, every nerve flaring in his mind without the usual physical stimulus.

Dexter screamed, his eyes rolling into the back of his head, his back arching. He fell back to the floor unconscious.

Jukilo ran to the child. “Dexter!” He held the boy’s unconscious form, glaring up at Violet, his brows furrowed with anger. “What did you DO?”

Violet seemed shocked for a moment, looking down at Dexter with something like horror and shame.

Scarlet’s hand came to rest on Violet’s shoulder and the little girl’s eyes hardened.

Scarlet cocked her head, looking down at Jukilo and Dexter with a concerned frown on her lips but a smile in her eyes. “I think Mister Jurrok…” She whispered. “That it’s time for you and Dexter to go…”  
  
  


 

Chloe was with her class, her hair tied up with a colorful bandana as she helped elementary students with clay. She looked over her student’s shoulders as tiny hands pushed the wet clay into rough shapes and sculptures.

One of the little girls in her class slammed her hand into the ball of clay, splattering it across her shirt and the table around her. A child who hasn’t realized their own strength yet.

“Oopsies.” The little girl blinked bewilderedly at the smashed lump of clay. “I sqwooshed it.”

Chloe laughed and helped clean the little girl’s hand with a paper towel. “Now why would you go and do something like that?”

The little girl let her hand be wiped down. “I was getting frustrated because it wasn’t how I wanted it to be, and I pushed too hard.”

Chloe laughed, not seeing her phone buzz insistently on her desk. “Well you have to be careful about that kind of thing…”

Her phone kept buzzing on her desk, a picture of her and her son Dexter as the wallpaper, both of them smiling at the camera as desperate calls from Jukilo began to number on the screen.

“It could be something really important next time….”

  
  
  
  


“Come on, come on…” Jukilo hissed into his phone as he rode in the ambulance with his girlfriend’s son. “Chloe please pick up.”

Dexter was on the stretcher in the ambulance, his eyes flickering back and forth unseeingly as the human EMTs slid up an eyelid and shone a flashlight in his eyes.

“No dilation.” One EMT announced to another.

Dexter reached blindly out, snagging Jukilo’s wrist. “Jukilo?” He whispered weakly.

Jukilo’s eyes widened, maneuvering to be closer to Dexter. “Dexter! Are you alright?”

“Vi-” Dexter coughed. “Vi-”

“It’s alright,” Jukilo assured him “She’s not-”

“She’s hurting so bad…” Tears began to form at the corner of the child’s hazy eyes. “She’s hurting so bad...”

Jukilo huffed incredulously, pushing up the bangs that stuck to the child’s sweaty head. “Dexter she just tried to  _ kill  _ you!”

Dexter shook his head “She’s all alone Jukilo. She’s alone and she’s scared and she doesn’t know what to do…”

Jukilo swallowed thickly. Dexter was always too kind for his own good. “Dexter it’s you I’m worried about right now.”

“She’s scared…” Dexter’s eyes began to roll up into his head, the child losing consciousness once more. “She’s scared… She’s scared and she doesn’t know what to do…”

  
  
  


Violet leaned against the window of the penthouse, watching the ambulance pulled out from the building down below, Jukilo and Dexter inside of it. She felt oddly disconnected from where she was above it, looking down at the scene playing out on the street like an overdramatic episode to a television show.

She could feel the cold glass under her fingertips, feeling off kilter and weightless, tethered to the moment only by the searing pain in her eye. She already knew what the pain meant, not needing to remove her eyepatch to see the new addition.

She watched in the glass as Scarlet moved to stand behind her, putting a hand on Violet’s shoulder, watching the scene below with thinly-veiled satisfaction.

“Oh Violet….” Her mother cooed and Violet could feel a wave of nausea well up in her.”

Scarlet smiled, the red and blue lights of the ambulance reflecting in her eyes, the queen at the top of her tower watching the enemy army retreat. She grinned, manic and sharp.

“There isn’t anything that can stop you now.”

  
  
  


Crocodile dad was wearing his white fedora and bubble pipe, proudly surveying the “Center for lusii and parents of human and troll children”, proudly sponsored by The Council of Dads.

On the other side of a plexiglass wall the monkey lusus was teaching a classroom of both human and troll children a traditional Alternian nursery rhyme. Raptor lusus was holding a seminary down the hall on lusii communication basics and grub bonding, their students a bunch of humans wearing similar white hats and fedoras who had all recently adopted grubs of their own. Laura was advising parents on behavioral issues and management, helping parents of human children as well as troll children. Thomas taught a course on Alternian biology in respect to grub rearing, the couple’s new grub in a sling around him as he lectured. Emmet taught and wrote grant proposals, Ben helped move boxes and gave talks to parents raising psiionics like his own daughter, Sharon managed and Laquda funded the whole thing.

Crocodile dad was proud of the community they were building, contacting and re-training the humans that had been raising grubs only with the help of Scarlet’s manual was proving to be extremely effective, helping troll children and parents alike.

A human man came to stand next to Crocodile dad. He appeared to be middle-aged, with white-blonde hair and a friendly face. He was wearing a white button-down shirt, khaki pants and a black tie. He held out his hand in greeting. “So you’re Crocodile Dad?”

Crocodile dad smiled, shaking the human’s hand and nodding.

The man put his hands on his hips. “I have to say Mr.Crocodile that I’m impressed.” He looked around at the facility, a smile on his face. “When I heard about this I came all the way from Washington State to see it.” He sighed wistfully. “I wish I had something like this when I was raising my own children.”

Crocodile dad scribbled a note onto his notepad, handing it to the human. 

[HOW MANY YOUNG DO YOU HAVE?”]

The human smiled back at him. “Two girls and two boys, though two of them left to live with their grandfather for a while and uh…” He rubbed the back of his neck.  “They’re all out of the house now though and I’m looking for something worthwhile to do with my time,” He looked at Crocodile dad earnestly. “I was hoping to join and start a branch up in Washington.”

Crocodile dad nodded happily, writing and passing another note. [THAT SOUNDS LIKE A WONDERFUL IDEA! TELL ME HUMAN, WHAT IS YOUR NAME?]

The man nodded. “Egbert.”

Crocodile dad pulled out a spare hat and bubble pipe from his satchel, placing the hat squarely on the human’s head and handing him the bubble pipe. [THEN I HEREBY WELCOME YOU TO THE COUNCIL OF DADS AND DECLARE YOU, DAD EGBERT!]

The man laughed, tipping up the fedora where Crocodile dad hat set it low on his head. “Thanks! I think I like the sound of that.”

When Egbert took his leave, after the two of them traded emails and chatted a bit about the mechanics of setting up another branch, a second man approached Crocodile dad. He was a bit older than the first with a large bushy mustache and and a harried look about him. “Excuse me? Mister Crocodile I presume?”

Crocodile dad turned to smile at the other human, nodding. 

Despite the worried set to his mouth and the dark circles under his eyes, there was a sort of refined look to the older man. The square set to his shoulders and the rise of his jaw made him seem like he belonged in a suit rather than what looked like a seldom used t-shirt and pair of sweatpants.

“I emailed you once before.” The man looked up at Crocodile dad earnestly. “About a cerulean named Violet.”

Crocodile dad nodded at him, writing something down on a piece of paper. [AH. YOU MUST BE BORIS]

Boris smiled, nodding gratefully. “I’m glad you remember me.” His smile fell, a haunted look in his eyes. “It’s about Violet, I’m worried about her. Scarlet has never been….” He shook his head sadly. “She’s been getting worse, acting more unstable. Violet is having difficulty with her abilities and I can’t imagine what she’s been through since I was removed.”

Crocodile dad put a large paw on the man’s shoulder, patting him in a comforting way. He began to scratch out another note and-

Sharon suddenly burst out of her office, phone in her hand as she ran down the hallway towards Crocodile dad and Boris. She shrugged on her coat awkwardly. “Crocodile dad! I just got a call from Jukilo. The meeting with Scarlet and Violet went bad and we need to meet them at the hospital.”

Crocodile dad gave her a look before running after her towards the parking lot, holding a paw to his fedora to keep it from flying away.

“Wait!” Boris called out to her as he jogged after them. “Who’s in the hospital? Is it Violet?”

Sharon gave him a look. “No she sent another kid to the hospital-” Her brows furrowed “Wait how do you know Violet?”

“Oh dear!” Boris’s eyes widened. “I’m sure she didn't mean it! She’s been having difficulty with her powers!” He huffed as he struggled to keep pace with her, bursting out the double doors and into the parking lot. “And to answer your other question-” He wheezed slightly. “My name is Boris and I was Violet’s caretaker before Scarlet fired me two days ago.”

Sharon paused, keys in her hand to turn and look at Boris. “And you’re worried about Violet?”

Boris nodded “Scarlet well she’s…” He seemed to shrink in on himself, worry weighing him down. “She’s not stable. Violet has been having trouble with her powers and I…” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m worried for her.”

“Would you be willing to talk with someone on the record about what you witnessed?” Sharon gave him a calculating look.

“I did!” Boris looked at her earnestly. “But they said had to have corroboration!”

Sharon sighed, a grim twist to her lips. “Unfortunately, we may just have corroboration sitting in a hospital bed.” She unlocked her car, motioning sharply to the passenger door. “Come on, you better come with us.”  
  
  


 

Chloe rushed down the white-tiled hallway, still wearing a paint and clay splattered apron over a blue dress patterned with cherry blossoms. Her hair was falling from the bandana she had tied it up with, her eyes wide with worry. She rounded the corner in the hospital hallway and burst into the hospital room.

Dexter was laying in the hospital bed, an IV in his arm and an exhausted look in his eyes. Jukilo sat next to him. Both trolls raised their heads when Chloe burst in.

“Mom…” Dexter raised his arms tiredly, asking for a hug.

Chloe rushed to his side, dropping her purse haphazardly and giving her son a hug. There were tears in her eyes as she rocked him back and forth gently. “Oh Dexter I’m so sorry.” She pushed up his bangs and gave him a kiss to the forehead, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Dexter, baby I’m so sorry.”

Chloe looked over her son’s shoulder at Jukilo, tears on her face and hurt in her eyes. “What happened? You were supposed to be looking out for him!”

Jukilo put a hand to his mouth, tears beading in his own eyes. “Chloe I’m so sorry.”

“It’s ok mom.” Dexter reached a hand up tiredly to pat her on the back. “He couldn’t have prevented this…”

Chloe’s brows furrowed. “What happened?”

“The little girl, Violet the psychic…” Jukilo shook his head “She did something when they were speaking telepathically.”

Chloe’s eyes widened “The little girl you were going to help?  _ She _ did this?”

“She messed with another man in the building too, Arthur Pimbleton.” Dexter jerked violently in Chloe’s arms, twitches that didn’t seem to be in his control. He scrunched his eyes, concentrating. “S-she’s powerful.” Dexter whispered “A-and Scarlet has been lying to her for so long…”

Dexter shuddered again. “I saw in her head momma….” His eyes filled with tears and he hiccuped out a sob. “Her mom is so  _ mean _ , and she’s so scared…”

Sharon walked into the room, Crocodile dad and Boris on her heels.  “Dexter are you able to tell other people what you saw? Specific instances from Violet’s memory?”

Dexter nodded solemnly.

Sharon nodded, dialing something on her phone. “I’ll see if I can find this Arthur…”

“Pimbleton.” Dexter supplied. “68 years old, widower, severe alcoholic. Studied at cambridge, had a wife named Nora and a son Jamie.” He leaned back on the pillows. “....and he’s left-handed…”

Chloe and Jukilo shared a look.

“How long did he talk to this guy?” Chloe whispered.

Jukilo shrugged. “I swear he put his fingers on this guy’s temple for two seconds.”

Chloe looked impressed.

Sharon’s brows were furrowed, a general preparing for battle. She looked at Jukilo. “We’re calling the cops and getting an emergency injunction. I’ll find Arthur and between him, Dexter and Boris we should be able to have her out by tonight. I’ll need you in your official embassy capacity.”

Jukilo nodded gravely, Chloe squeezed his hand comfortingly.

Sharon gave Dexter a look. “Thank you Dexter, you’re very brave.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry about what happened to you, but we’ll get this fixed and we’ll get Violet somewhere where she can get help away from her mother, ok?”

Dexter nodded. “Hurry. She’s powerful…. She’s powerful and she’s scared, who knows what she might do...”  
  
  


 

Scarlet flitted about her apartment, smug and giggling. Her hair was loose, her shirt hung off-kilter on her thin frame, exposing a bare shoulder. She sat down at her desk, giggling behind a hand, her eyes scanning back and forth at the words on screen.

“Oh Violet so much is going to change.” Scarlet whispered in awe. “There isn’t a limit to what you can do now that they know to stay out of the way. I have a certain congresswoman who I could have you meet with, make the bitch more  _ agreeable _ . Oh!” She straightened up in her chair “Maybe have you meet with someone along the lines of Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, make them agree to transfer their companies to me.” Her shoulders hunched with anticipation, her eyes wild and her hair in her face. “The sky's the limit Violet! We can have anything, absolutely  _ anything _ we want!”

Violet stared out the window, watching her own reflection in the glass. It was slowly turning to evening, streaks of pale light being snuffed out between the buildings. “Anything  _ you _ want, you mean…”

Scarlet gave her daughter a look. She rose from her desk to stand next to Violet at the window. “Violet all of this is for  _ you _ .” She motioned out to the city. “You’re going to inherit my empire when I’m gone, if you play your cards right you can  _ rule _ this world.” Scarlet leaned down to her daughter, on her knees, looking up to try and get Violet’s attention. “Tell me what you want Violet, anything and it’s  _ yours _ .”

Violet didn’t look at her mother, only stared out at the city outside the apartment, the last rays of sunshine being snuffed out between the cold steel of the buildings.

Violet finally turned, her uncovered eye staring at her mother. Gabriel's test came to mind. “I want to talk to Boris”

Scarlet looked surprised for a moment. She stood up, staring down at her daughter and fiddling with her hands. She shook her head and brushed the question off. She turned back to her desk, sitting down and opening her makeup kit. “He doesn’t matter Violet.”

Violet stared at her mother, her shoulders tense with anger. “He matters to ME.”

Scarlet paused where she had been in the process of putting on mascara, one eye done and the other bare as she looked angrily up at Violet and snapped the lid closed. “What is  _ with _ you?” She stood up from her seat “I  _ said _ he doesn’t matter!”

“And I say he does!” Violet snapped back.

Scarlet huffed, looking down at her daughter with a sneer. “Don’t get a fucking  _ attitude _ on me.” She motioned angrily around them. “Anything in the world and you’re still hung up on that fucking  _ sheep _ ? You’re better than him Violet!” Scarlet screamed “You’re better than that fucking traitor!”

“He ISN’T a traitor!” Violet yelled back

“Do you know what I found?” Scarlet tapped back to her desk and pulled out a tiny piece of machinery from a box.

Violet’s eyes widened with horror as Scarlet lifted up the bug, the tiny piece of wiring glinting in the light between her perfectly manicured nails. Scarlet took off her stiletto and smashed the recording device, Violet watching with horror.  
  
  


 

“Shit!” Gabriel ripped off his headphones where he had been listening to the livestream in his apartment, halfway through with making macaroni and cheese. The feedback from when Scarlet had smashed the bug still ringing in his ears.

He picked up his cellphone and quickly dialed a number.

Sharon picked up from where she was in the hospital hallway, officers swarming Dexter’s hospital room and the seating area outside, getting statements from Dexter, Arthur and Boris respectively.

A doctor was in with Chloe and Dexter, explaining something about permanent nerve damage and chronic pain to a distraught Chloe.

“What’s happening?” Sharon asked as soon as she recognized the caller and picked up.

“Scarlet found the bug.” Gabriel answered back, his brows furrowed in a hard line, a dark look in his eyes. “You need to get to Violet now, something is going down.”

“Shit.” Sharon hissed back. She turned to the officers. “Something is happening at Scarlet’s apartment. “We need that injunction NOW!”  
  
  


 

Violet watched as her last hope of rescue was smashed in front of her eyes.

Scarlet was breathing heavily, a triumphant look on her face as she surveyed the wreckage. “All my life they’ve been trying to take me down, whispering behind my back, scheming against me.” She grinned “Boris is just another treacherous sheep, and that’s why he HAD to go!”

Violet looked up at her mother, her shoulders shaking, devastated and alone, but her voice low and even. “What. Did. You. Do?”

“He was too coddling anyways Violet.” Scarlet purred, batting her eyes. “He was holding you back.”

“Just  _ tell me _ what you did!” Violet snapped.

Scarlet’s eyes narrowed, the curtain of her hair in her face, wild and tangled, making her red eyes seem darker. Her lip curled. “Do  _ NOT  _ use that tone with me.” She raised her chin. “You really want to know what I did?” She shrugged her shoulders, sending a smug condescending smile down at Violet. “I fired him!”

Violet shook with rage, hissing under her breath. “....You didn’t even let him say goodbye.”

“Oh honey….” Scarlet purred, popping up a shoulder. “He didn’t  _ want  _ to say goodbye to  _ you.” _

_ “ _ LIAR!” Violet screamed, her hands balled into fists and tears running down her face. “LIAR!”

“GET OVER IT!” Scarlet screamed back. She put a hand to her chest. “I’M THE ONLY PERSON YOU NEED ANYWAYS!” She dropped to her knees in front of Violet, Scarlet’s hands on either one of her biceps, forcing Violet to look her in the eyes. “We’re all each other needs! We’re all each other will ever need! Just the two of us, lions ruling over sheep…” Scarlet brushed back a piece of Violet’s hair, Violet shying away from her hand. “And once you have your eye surgery you’ll be perfect, so absolutely perfect….”

Violet turned away from her mother as Scarlet crowded into her space. “I don’t want your empire and I don’t want eye surgery!”

“I’ll buy you a new eye.” Scarlet purred, hand lifting Violet’s chin and smiling in what was supposed to a comforting manner but just came across as manic and off-kilter. “Any color you’d like….” Her lips widened into a grin. “maybe even violet….”

Violet looked down at her mother, taking in her messy hair, the manic look in her eyes, and the one eye done up with mascara while the other went bare.

A cold well of disgust and pity formed in her gut. She shook her head, a hard look in her eyes. “You really are nothing but a crazy bitch, aren’t you?”

Scarlet let go of her arms, standing above her daughter, her shoulders shaking with fury.

“Don’t you dare….” Scarlet’s eyes widened with fury, her lips curled into a snarl. She raised her hand. “TALK THAT WAY TO YOUR MOTHER!”

Scarlet slapped Violet hard across the cheek, making the little girl yelp and fall back.

“I MADE YOU WHAT YOU ARE.” Scarlet screamed, raising her hand again for another blow. “YOU TREACHEROUS LITTLE-”

Scarlet froze in place, her scream dying until it was replaced with the smallest of whimpers. Her hand shook where it was raised to strike, unable to move.

Violet glared up at her mother, her brows furrowed and a snarl on her lips. She made a quick motion with her hand and Scarlet’s hand jerked down awkwardly to rest at her side. Violet growled and with another larger motion Scarlet was brought to her knees.

Violet looked down at her mother, Scarlet wide-eyed and unable to move, trembling with fear and confusion.

Violet looked down at her, a smile widening on her face. “I won.”

Scarlet was struggling against the telepathic hold Violet had on her but it was no use, an aborted scream was caught in her throat and her eyes flickered wildly.

“You know what that means…” Violet purred, her eyes going hooded as she parroted her mother’s own words back at her. “...don’t you?”

Violet snarled viciously, her fangs on display as she looked down at her mother with disgust. “It means I’m better than you.”

Scarlet breathed heavily, staring daggers up at her daughter.

Violet preened under her gaze, grinning widely down at her mother. “It means I don’t need you anymore.”  
  
  


 

Sharon and Jukilo were flanked by police officers, bursting into Calimistrum tower. There was hell in Sharon’s eyes, her coat fluttering around her and her heeled boots sounding like a judge’s gavel on the marble floors. Justice incarnate.

The secretary tried to stop them but was quickly subdued by officers. They entered Scarlet’s personal elevator, the fluorescent lights making long shadows across Sharon and the officer’s faces. They burst their way into the apartment and-

Scarlet sat in the middle of the room, her hands and ankles zip-tied to the desk chair she was sitting in, her head hanging low.

The apartment looked like it had been raided, drawers were thrown open and dumped onto the floor, Scarlet’s personal safe was open, the cash having been pilfered. Every piece of expensive jewelry Scarlet owned was gone. 

All the officers found missing from Violet’s room was a tiny backpack and a drawer full of clothes.

Jukilo kneeled in front of Scarlet, as she hung her hair and sobbed, her shoulders shaking. He cut the zip ties that held her to the chair. “What happened?”

Scarlet sobbed. She cried and she cried until her cries gradually began to change, morphing into giggles and then laughter. Her laughs grew louder and louder turning more and more manic.

“What can I say?” Scarlet cocked her head and looked at Jukilo, her hair falling across her face and a tiny fond smile on her lips. “She’s her mother’s daughter.”  
  
  


 

Violet undid her braided pigtails, letting her hair fall around her shoulders wildly. She sharpened her claws for the first time in years and used them to cut her hair choppily. Chunks of black hair falling around her feet. She stole a pair of loose shorts, a t-shirt and a raggedy jacket. She ignored the sirens of the police cars converging on Calimistrum tower, walking  down the street, a determined glint in her eye.

Sneaking on the ship was almost too easy. Violet forced the teal-blood’s hand to stamp the passport, their eyes wide and unseeing. Violet lounged in her cabin, the cabin’s previous tenant drooling and staring at the wall as she perused the papers she had stolen from her mother’s desk. Her eye ached but she ignored it, scanning the documents for some sort of clue.

“Well then…” Violet squinted at her own adoption certificate that she had found at the bottom of her mother’s safe under a thick stack of hundred dollar bills. She read the name of the Alternian official who signed and approved the document over and over, committing it to memory. 

Ozainu Kalala.  
  
  


 

Ozainu Kalala currently had his home docked for repairs. Craftsmen were buzzing around the outer hull of the ship like bees, tending to the elegant gold and obsidian plates that made up the massive octopus submarine.

The massive seatroll was in his study, pouring something from an elegant bejeweled decanter into a cup. He paused, putting down the decanter and listening for a hard moment, his frills twitching, he reached under his desk for a knife and-

The tip of a sword was already pressed to his neck. He followed the silver trail of light that made up the blade to a tiny grey hand.

Ozainu huffed out an amused laugh. “A child?”

Violet stared back at him. “You gave a grub to Scarlet Hasselti.” Her eyes narrowed, attempting to crawl into the older seatroll’s mind. “You WILL tell me why.”

Ozainu laughed and Violet felt herself be rudely rebuffed, she fought back but found herself unable to enter his mind. She growled in annoyance and dismay.

“Nice try.” Ozainu raised a brow at her. “But I’ve had thousands of years of experience dealing with psychics, I know how to keep my bearings.” He looked at her curiously. “Though you have talent I must say, you’re what? Four sweeps?” He tapped a claw to his lips absentmindedly. “Four sweeps and that actually took effort…”

Violet glared back at him.

“Just imagine what you’ll be able to do with some proper training…” He mused. He gave Violet an appraising look. “So you’re  _ Scarlet’s _ grub?”

Violet raised her chin, staring back at him with a silent challenge.

There was the ghost of a smile on Ozainu’s lips. “Well I’m certainly glad to see that you’ve surpassed her.” He took the decanter again, motioning to an empty seat in front of his desk. “Put that silly thing down and have a seat.”

Violet sat down, lowering her sword slightly, but didn’t take her eyes away from Ozainu or relinquish her weapon.

Ozainu poured himself a drink from the decanter. “I will admit that you were meant to be nothing more than a political chess piece. Scarlet decided to adopt a grub in order to play the part of a harried parent and warn humans against buying into the grub adoption initiative.”

Violet's eyes widened.

“She got prideful though.” Ozainu clicked a claw across his glass. “Once you were hers, and therefore a reflection of herself, she couldn’t let you be anything but perfect.”

Violet was silent, processing this information.

“I have sources in Miami.” Ozainu told the girl. “I heard about your disappearance but…”

“You gave me to a bitch.” Violet whispered. 

Ozainu sighed, leaning back in his chair. “That I did.” He looked over Violet, her grubby clothes and her messy hair. “I can’t help but feel a bit responsible.”

Violet cocked her head “A  _ bit _ ?” she added sarcastically.

“I just supplied the grub.” Ozainu reasoned. “Though your mother proved to be a more efficient whetstone for the sharpening of your kills than I had thought.” He nodded “You’ve surpassed her...” He leaned back in his chair. “...and I would be remiss if I didn’t let talent flourish.”

Violet looked at him curiously.

“Here is my offer.” Ozainu steepled his hands and looked over his desk at the child “I can make you a new name and a place to live as well as training. Given of course-” He waved his hand “That you agree to work for me.”

Violet stared at him, thinking through the offer.

She sighed, reaching across the desk to shake his hand, her tiny hand engulfed in his. “Very well Mir.Kalala.”

Ozainu passed the child a book from his bookshelf. “A list of Alternian names and surnames.”

Violet accepted the book and while she perused the names, Ozainu pressed a button on the side of his desk and an unnoticeable slot spat out a series of freshly printed forms. He snapped open an old flat case pulling out an ancient looking feather quill.  Wetting the quill on his tongue he got to work.

“Lusus?” Ozainu asked.

“A spider.” Violet answered, leafing through the book. She thought of the emblem of her mother’s company, the spider that encircled the globe. “...a big one.”

Ozainu quirked his eyebrows but wrote it down regardlessly. “And where do you live?”

Violet thought about Calamistrum tower, the monolith of chrome and glass. “A castle.” She whispered.

Ozainu wrote the information down. “I may have an extra property fitting the description that you could use… It’s a bit out of repair though…”

“That’s fine.” Violet whispered. She handed him the book, tapping at one name and then the other.

Ozainu wrote down the girl’s first name but raised an eyebrow at the surname. “Really? It sounds like your mother’s name...”

Violet gave him a hard stare. “I hate my mother but she made me what I am, it’s only fair to pay tribute.”

Ozainu wrote down the surname. “Very well.” He smoothed down the paper and began to pass it to the child. 

Violet reached for the documentation but Ozainu held it just out of her reach.

“Before I sign it…” Ozainu gave her a look. “You know your mother will be looking for you.”

Violet nodded “I know.”

“That is of course…” He mused. “Unless she believes you to be deceased.”

Violet gave him a look. “What … do you suggest?”

Ozainu smiled, taking a small leather case from the drawer in his desk, he opened the case and inside was what looked like a slightly worn but delicately sharpened ice cream scoop, his symbol pressed lovingly into the handle.

“It is a tool for the removal of eyes.” Ozainu pushed the little leather case towards the child, the instrument gleaming in the light.

Violet gave him a hard look. She took her eyepatch from her face, exposing her mutated eye.

“Perfect.” Ozainu mused. “Quite recognizable.”

Violet watched him carefully.

“Come now.” Ozainu leaned back in his chair. “We all have to make sacrifices to keep what is important to us.” He tapped a claw to the handle of the device. “If that just so happens to be an eye…” He cocked his head. “Then so be it.”

Violet picked up the instrument, watching the silver gleam off of the well-used instrument. She stared back at Ozainu, her eyes glinting with determination. She brought the instrument up to her face, sliding the edge of the tool under her eyelid, swiveling the device with a slow and careful precision, listening to the pop and crack of musculature and connective tissue reverberate through her skull as she worked, never once taking her eyes off him.

Finally she was done and she threw the tool and eye onto the desk with a splatter of cerulean blood.

Ozainu hummed, passing the youth a wad of bandages to stifle the bleeding. He picked up the eye and wrapped it with a handkerchief, the now eight pupils staring back up at him before being covered with the silk.

“Very well.” Ozainu wiped a splatter of cerulean blood off the document and signing it. “Welcome to Alternia….” He squinted as he read the name she had chosen aloud.

“Miss Vriska Serket.”

  
  
  


Scarlet tapped back and forth in her apartment. After Violet’s “Kidnapping” the FBI hadn’t left where they had been camping out in her living room, a sea of dark jackets and solemn men hooking listening devices to her phones in case the kidnapper called.

Scarlet herself had hired a fleet of investigators to track down her daughter, convinced that Violet’s insurrection was due to some outside influence. She sorted through her mail, a small package practically covered with postage among the usual letters of condolences.

Scarlet got a phone call.

“Hello?” Scarlet picked up her phone, adding a sad lilt in case it was another well-wisher.

“Miss Hasselti.” Ozainu purred from the other end of the line.

Scarlet’s eyes widened. She turned to make sure none of the agents were listening before going back to her phone and hissing “What the fuck do  _ you _ want?”

“Oh nothing.” Ozainu’s smile almost seemed to be audible in his voice. “I heard what happened and I am offering my condolences.”

Scarlet’s brow furrowed “So that’s it? You’re calling to gloat?”

“Oh no.” Ozainu’s voice was a low rumble. “The gloating comes later.”

“Fuck off.” Scarlet hissed into the phone.

“Oh but I have such a nice present for you.” Scarlet looked suspiciously at the small package. “I recently had the joy of making another acquisition for my collection, and I thought to myself- why should I keep this treasure to myself? Why not send it where it will be  _ appreciated _ most?”

Scarlet’s eyes were wide, looking at the phone in her hands with horror. She ripped open the box, finding a small refrigerated container, she opened it and-

Ozainu heard the horrified scream on his end of the line, he smiled as he leaned back in his chair. “Miss Hasselti…” Ozainu leaned forward to purr into the phone. “Your move now.” and with that he promptly hung up.

Scarlet threw down the little box, her daughter’s eye wrapped in a silk handkerchief…

Eight pupils staring back at her accusingly.

Scarlet pressed her hands to her mouth, muffling her screams as tears ran down her face.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Tell me what you thought!
> 
> IS IT ALL COMING TOGETHER NOW?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Let me know what you think! Now we finally know who had been pulling the strings behind Whiteman! All evil politicians have a corporate buyer and Scarlet and the Lactrodectus company was Whiteman's!


End file.
